With Compliments. 

T. S. jPlID-A-IXTS, 

Secretary of State, IBjj 



CONSTITUTION 



tate of ©Gcaiiiana 



ADOPTED IH CONYEKTIOK 



CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 



Tlie Twenty -Thiird Gay of Jixly^ 



A. D., 1879. 



.Z«.*<^, ^^ ^ tZ Gf^ L '^ 'Ti ^ 



BATON KOUGE: 

THE ADVOCATE, OFFICIAL JoUKXAL OF fllE STATK OF I/) [J LSI A X A, 

1894. 






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^ ^, 



s* 



CONSTITUTION 



PEEAMBLE. 

We, tbe people of the State of Louisiana, in order to estab- 
lish justice, insure domestic tranquility, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
prosperity, acl?nowledging and invoking the guidance of Al- 
mighty God, the author of all good government, do ordain and 
•establish this constitution. 

BILLS OF EIGHTS. 

Article 1. All government of right originates with the 
people, is founded on their will alone, and is instituted solely for 
the good of ihe whole, deriving its just powers from the consent 
of the governed. Its only le2,i imate end is to protect the citi- 
-zen in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property. When it as- 
sumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression. 

AnT. 2. The right of the people to be secure in their per- 
sons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonaDle searches 
and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue 
except upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, 
and particularly describing the place to be searched aud the 
person or things to be seized. 

Art. 3. A well regulated militia being necessary to the 
security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear 
arms shall not be abridged. This shall not prevent the passage 
of laws to i^unish those who carry weapons concealed. 

Art. 4. iS"o laws shall be passed respecting an establish- 
ment ot religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof^ or 
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of 
the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government 
for a redress of grievances. 

Art. 5. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary ser- 
vitude in this State otherwise than for the iDunishment of crime, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Prosecutions 



4 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

shall be by indictment or information; provided, that no person 
shall be held to answer for a capital crime unless on a present- 
ment or indictment by a grand jury, except in cases arising in 
the militia when in actual service in time of war or public dan- 
ger, nor shall any person be twice put in jeopardy of life or 
liberty for the same offense, except on his own application for a 
new trial, or where there is a mistrial, or a motion in arrest of 
judgment is sustained. 

Art. 6. No person shall be compelled to give evidence 
against himself in a criminal case or in any proceedings that 
may subject him to criminal prosecution, except where otherwise 
provided in this constitution, nor be deprived of life, liberty or 
property without due process of law. 

Art. 7. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall en- 
joy the right to a speedy public trial by an impartial jury, except 
that, in cases where the penalty is not necessarily imprison- 
ment at hard labor or death, the General Assembly may provide 
for the trial thereof by a jury, less than twelve in number; 
provided, that the accused in every instance shall be tried in the 
palish wherein the offense shall have been committed, except 
in cases of change of venue. 

Art. 8. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall 
enjoy the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the 
accnsation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to 
have compulsory process tor obtaining witnesses in his favor, 
and to defend himself, and to have the assistance of counsel and 
to have the right to challeuge jurors peremptorily, th'^ number 
of challenges to be tixed by statue. 

Art. 9. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive 
fines be imposed, nor cruel and unusual i)unishmencs inflicted. 
All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, unless for 
capital offenses where the proof is evident or the presumption 
great; or unless after conviction for any crime or offense punish- 
able with death or imprison men t,at hard labor. 

Art. 10. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall 
not be suspended, unless when in case of rebellion or invasion 
the public safety may require it. 

Art. 11. All courts shall be open, and every person for 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OE LOUISIANA. 5 

injury done bim in Ms rights, lands, goods, person or reputation 
shall have adequate remedy by due process of law and justice 
administered without denial or unreasonable delay. 

Art. 12. The military shall be in subordination to the civil 
power. 

Art. 13. This enumeration of rights shall not be construed 
to deny or impair other rights of the people not herein expressed. 

DTSTEIBUTIOI^ OF TOWEES. 

Art. 14. The powers of the government of the State of 
Louisiana shall be divided into three distinct departments^ and 
«ach of them be confided to a separate body of magistracy, to- 
wit: Those which are legislative to one, those which are execu- 
tive to another, and those which are judicial to another. 

Art. 15. l^o one of these departments, nor any person or 
collection of persons holding office in one of them, shall exercise 
power properly belonging to either of the others, except in the 
instances hereinafter expressly directed or permitted. 

APPORTIONMEKT. 

Art. 16. Eepresentation in the House of Eepresentatives 
shall be equal and uniform, and shall be regulated and ascer- 
tained by the total population. Each parish shall have at least 
one Eepresentative. The first enumeration to be made by the 
State authorities under this Constitution, shall be made in the 
year eighteen hundred and ninety, and subsequent enumerations 
shall be made every tenth year thereafter, in such manner as 
shall be prescribed by law, for the purpose of ascertaining the 
total population and the number of qualified electors in each ' 
parish and election district. At its first regular session after 
each enumeration, the General Assembly shall opportion the 
representation among the several parishes and election districts 
on the basis of the total population as aforesaid. A representa- 
tive number shall be fixed, and each parish and election district 
shall have as many Eepresentatives as the aggregate number of 
its population will entitle it to, and an additional Eepresenta- 
tive for any fraction exceeding one-halt the representative num- 



6 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

ber. The number of Eepresentatives shall not be more than 
ninety-eight, nor less than seventy. 

Art. 17. The General Assembly, in every year in which 
they shall apportion representation in the House of Eepresenta- 
tives, shall divide the State into senatorial districts. No parish 
shall be divided in the formation of a senatorial district, the 
parish of Orleans excepted. Whenever a new parish shall be 
created, it shall be attached to the senatorial district from which 
most of its territory was taken, or to another contiguous district,^ 
at the discretion of the General Assembly, but shall not be at- 
tached to more than one district. The number of Senators shall 
not be more than thirty-six uor less than twenty-four, and they 
shall he apportioned among the senatorial districts according 
to the total population contained in the several districts. 

Art. 18. Until an enumeration shall be made in accord- 
ance with Articles 16 and 17, the State shall be divided into the 
following senatorial districts, with the number of Senators 
hereinafter designated to each district: 

The First Senatorial District shall be composed of the eighth 
and ninth wards of Orleans, and of the parishes of St. Be.nard 
and Plaquemines, and shall elect two Senators. 

The Second Distr ct shall be composed of the fourth, fifth, 
sixth and seventh wards of Orleans, and shall elect two Sen- 
ators. 

The Third District shall be composed of the third ward of 
Orleans, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Fourth District shall be composed of the second and 
fifteenth wards (Orleans, right bank) of Orleans, and shall elect 
one Senator. 

The Fifth District shall be composed of the first and tenth 
wards of Orleans, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Sixth District shall be composed of the eleventh, 
twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth wards 
of Orleans, and shall elect two Senators. 

The Seventh District shall be composed of the parishes of 
Jefferson, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist, and shall elect 
one Senator. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 7 

The Eighth District shall be composed of the parishes of 
St. James and Ascension, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Mnth District shall be composed of the parishes of 
Terreborne, Lafourche and Assumption, and shall elect two 
Senators. 

The Tenth District shall be composed of the parishes of St. 
Mary, Yermilion, Cameron and Calcasieu and shall elect two 
Senators. 

The Eleventh District shall be composed of the parishes of 
St. Martin, Iberia and Lafayette, and shall elect one Senator, 

The Twelfth District shall be composed of the parishes of 
St. Landry, and shall elect two Senators. 

The Thirteenth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Avoyelles and Pointe Coupee, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Fourteenth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Iberville and West Baton Eouge, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Fifteenth District shall be composed of the parishes of 
East and West Feliciana, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Sixteenth District shall be composed of the parish of 
East Baton Eouge, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Seventeenth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of St. He'.ena, Livingston, Tangipahoa, Washington and St. 
Tammany, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Eighteenth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Rapides aud Yernon, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Nineteenth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Natchitoches, Sabine, DeSoto and Red River, and shall elect 
two Senators. 

The Twentieth District shall be composed of the parish of 
Caddo, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Tweuty- First District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Bossier, Webster, Bienville and Claiborne, and fhall elect two 
Senators. 

The Twenty-Second District shall be composed of the par- 
ishes of Union, Morehouse, Lincoln and West Carroll, and shall 
elect two Senators. 

The Twenty-Third District shall be composed of the parislies 



8 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

of Ouachita, Eichland, Caldwell, Franklin and Jackson, and 
shall elect two Senators. 

The Twenty-Fourth District shall be composed of the par- 
ishes of Catahoula, Winn and Grant, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Twenly-Fifth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of East Carroll and Madison, and shall elect one Senator. 

The Twenty-Sixth District shall be composed of the parishes 
of Tensas and Concordia, and shall elect one Senator. 

Thirty-Six (36) Senators in all. 

And the Eepresentatives shall be apportioned among the 
parishes and representative districts as follows : 

For the parish of Orleans — 

First Representative District, first ward, one Represent ative. 

Second Representative District, second ward, two Repre- 
sentatives. 

Third Representative District, third ward, three Represen- 
tatives. 

Fourth Representative District, fourth ward, one Repre- 
sentative. 

Fifth Representative District, fifth ward, two Representa- 
tives. 

Sixth Representative District, sixth ward, one Represen 
tative. 

Seventh Representative District, seventh ward, two Repre- 
sentatives. 

Eighth Representative District, eighth ward, one Repre- 
sentative. 

Ninth Representative District, ninth ward, two Represen- 
tatives. 

Tenth Representative District, tenth ward, two Represen- 
tatives. 

Eleventh Representative District, eleventh ward, two Re- 
presentatives. 

Twelfth Representative District, twelfth ward, one Repre- 
sentative. 

Thirteenth Representative Ditrict, thirteenth and fourteenth 
wards, one Eepresentive. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 9 

Fourteenth Eepresentative District, sixteentli and seven- 
teenth wards, one Eepresentative. 

Fifteenth Eepresentative District, fifteenth ward, one Ee- 
presentative. 

The parishes of Ascension, West Baton Eouge, Bienville, 
Bossier, Calcasieu, Caldwell, Cameron, East Carroll, West Car- 
roll, Catahoula, Concordia, West Feliciana, Franklin, Grant, 
Iberia, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lincoln, Livingston, More- 
house, Ouachita, Plaquemine, Pointe Coupee, Eed Eiver, Eich- 
land, Sabine, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, ^ t. James, 
St. John the Baptist, St. Martin, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, 
Union, Vermilion, Vernon, Washington, Webster and Winn, 
each one Eepresentative. 

The parishes of Assumption, Avoyelles, East Baton Eouge, 
Caddo, Claiborne, DeSoto, East Feliciana, Iberville, Lafourche, 
Madison, Katchitoches, Eapides, St. Mary, Tensas and Terre- 
bonne, each two Eepresentatives. 

The parish of St. Landry four Eepresentatives. 

This apportionment of Senators and Eepresentative shall 
not be changed or altered in any manner until after the enumer- 
ation shall have been taken by the State in eighteen hundred 
and ninety, in accordance with the provisions of articles 16 
and 17. 

GEKEEAL ASSEMBLY. 

Art. 19. The legislative power of the State shall be vested 
in a General A ssembly, which shall consist of a Senate and 
House of Eepresentatives. 

Art. 20. The style of the laws of this State shall be; ^'Be it 
enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana." 

Art. 21. The General Assembly shall meet at the seat of 
government on the second Monday of May, 1882, at 12 o'clock 
noon, and l-iennially thereafter. Its first session under this 
constitution may extend to period ot ninety days, but any sub- 
sequent session shall be limited to a period of sixty days. Should 
a vacancy occur in either house, the Governor shall order an 
election to fill such vacancy for the remainder of the term. 

Art. 22. Every elector under this constitution shall be 



10 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

eligible to a seat in the House of Eepresentatives, and every 
elector who has reached the age of twenty-five years shall be 
eligible to the Sena^^e; provided, that no person shall be eligible 
to the General Assembly unless at the time of his election he 
has been a citizen of the State for five years and an actual resi- 
denr of the district or parish irom which he may be elected for 
two years immediately preceding his election. The seat of any 
member who may change his residence from the district or 
parish which he represents, shall thereby be vacated, any declar- 
ation of a retention of domicile to the contrary notwithstanding; 
and members of the G-eneral Assembly shall be elected for a 
term of four years. 

Art. 23. Each house shall judge of the qualifications, elec- 
tion and returns of its own members, choose its own officers (except 
President of the Senate), determine the rules of its proceedings 
and may punish its members for disorderly conduct and con- 
tempt, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its mem- 
bers elected, expel a member. 

Art. 24. Either house, during the session, may punish by 
iinprisonment any person not a member, who shall have been 
guilty of disrespect by disorderly or contemptuous behavior; 
but such imprisonment shall not exceed ten days for each 
offense. 

Art. 25. Xo Senator or Eepresentative shall, during the 
term for which he was elected, nor for one year thereafter, be 
appointed or elected to any civil office of profit under this State 
which may have been created, or the emolainents of which may 
have been increased by the General Assembly during the time 
such Senator or Eepresentative was a member thereof. 

Art. 26. The members of the General Assembly shall in 
all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be 
privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of 
their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the 
same; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall 
not be questioned in any other place. 

Art. 27. The members of the General Assembly shall re- 
ceive a compensation not to exceed foar dollars per day during 
their attendance, and their actual traveling expenses going 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. H 

to and returning from the seat of government; but in no instance 
shall more than thirty dollars each way be allowed for traveling 
expenses. 

Art. 28. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, 
and cause the same to be published immediately after the close 
of the session; when practicab e, the minutes of each day's 
session shall be printed and placed in the hands of members on 
the day following. The original journal shall be preserved, 
after publication, in the office of Secretary of State, but there 
shall be required no other record thereof. 

Art. 29. Every law enacted by the General Assembly shall 
embrace but one object, and that be expressed in the title. 

Art. 30. No law shall be revived or amended by reference 
to its title, but in such cases the act revived or section as 
amended shall be re-enacted and published at length. 

Art. 31. The general Assembly shall never adopt any 
system or code of laws by general reference to such system or 
code of laws, but in all cases shall recite at length the several 
provisions of the laws it may enact. 

Art. 32. Not less than a majority of the members of each 
House of the General A ssembly shall form a quorum to transact 
business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, 
and shall have power to compel the attendance of absent mem- 
bers. 

Art. 33. Neither House during the session of the General 
Assembly shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for 
more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which 
it may be sitting. 

Art. 34. The yeas and nays on any question in either 
House shall, at the desire of one-fifth of the members elected, 
be entered on the journal. 

Art. 35. All bills for raising revenue or appropriating 
money shall originate in the House of Eepresentatives, but the 
Senate may propose or concur in amendments, as in other bills. 

Art. 36. No bill, ordinance, or resolution intended to have 
the effect of a law, which shall have been rejected by either 
Hou^e, shall be again proposed in the same House during the 
same session, under the same or any other title, without the 



12 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

consent of a majority of the House by which the same was re- 
jected. 

Art. 37. Every bill shall be read on three different days in 
each House, and no bill shall be considered for final passage 
unless it has been read once in full, and the same has been 
reported on by a committee. !N^or shall any bill become a law 
unless, on its final passage, the vote be taken by yeas and nays, 
the names of the members voting for or against the same be 
entered on the journal, and a majorit J' of the members elected 
to each House be recorded thereon as voting in its favor. 

Art. 38. No amendment to bills by one House shall be 
concurred in by the other, except by a vote of a majority of 
the members elected thereto, taken by yeas and nays, and the 
names of those voting for or against recorded upon the journal 
thereof. And reports of committees of conference shall be 
adopted in either House only by a majority of the members 
elected thereto, the vote to be taken by yeas and nays, and the 
names of those voting for or against recorded upon the journal. 

Art. 39. Whenever a bill that has been passed by both 
Houses is enrolled and placed in possession ot the House in 
which it originated the title shall be read, and at the request 
of any five members, the bill shall be read in full, when the 
Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives or the President of the 
Senate, as the case may be, shall act at once, sign it in open 
House, and the fact of signing shall be noted on the journal ; 
thereupon the Clerk or Secretary shall immediately convey the 
bill to the other House, whose presiding officer shall cause a 
suspension of all other business to read and sign the bill in 
open session and without delay j as soon as bills are signed by 
the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate, they 
shall be taken at once, and on the sime day, to the Governor by 
the Clerk of the House or Secretary of the Senate. 

Art. 40. l!^o law passed by the General Assembly, except 
the general appropriation act, or act appropriating money for 
the expenses of the General Assembly, shall take effect until 
promulgated. A law shall be considered promulgated at the 
place where the State journal is published the day after the 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 13 

publication of such law in the State journal, and in all other 
parts of the State, twenty days after such publication. 

Art. 41. The clerical officers of the two Houses of Eepre- 
sentatives shall be a Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the 
House of Eepresentatives, with such assistants as may be 
necessar}^, but the expenses for clerks and employes shall not 
exceed sixty dollars daily for the Senate, nor seventy dollars 
daily for the House. 

Art. 42. All stationery, priuting, paper and fuel used in 
the legislative and other departments of government, shall be 
furnished, and the printing, binding and distributing ot the laws, 
journals and department reports, and all other printing and 
binding, and the repairing and furnishing the halls and rooms 
used for the meetings of the General Assembly and its commit- 
tees, shall be done under contract, to be given to the lowest re- 
sponsible bidder below such maximum price, and under such 
regulations as shall be prescribed by law; provided^ that such 
contracts shall be awarded only to citizens of the State. No 
member or officer ol any of the departments of the government 
shall be in any way interested in such contracts, and all such 
contracts shall be subject to the approval of the Governor, the 
President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Represen- 
tatives, or any two of them. 

LIMITATION OF LEGISLATIVE POWERS. 

Art. 43. No money shall be drawn from the treasury ex- 
cept in pursuance of specific appropriations made by law; nor 
shall any appropriation of money be made tor a longer term than 
two years. A regular statement and account of receipts and 
expenditures of all public moneys shall be pujlishedevery three 
mouths, in such manner as shall be be proscribed by law. 

Art. 44. The General Assembly shall have no power to 
. contract, or to authorize the contracting, ot any debt or liability, 
on behalf of the State, or to issue bonds or other evidence of 
indebtedness thereof, except for the purpose of repelling inva- 
sion or for the suppression of insurrection. 

Art. 45. The General Assembly shall have no power to 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

grant, or to authorize any parlshor municipal authority to grant, 
any extra compensation, fee or allowance to a public officer, 
agent, servant or contractor, nor pay, nor authorize the payment, 
of any claim against the State, or any parish or municipality of 
the State, under any agreement or contract made without ex- 
press authority of law; and all such unauthorized agreements or 
contracts shall be null and void. 

Art. 46. The General Assembly shall not pass any local 
or special law on the following specified objects : 

For the opening and conducting of elections, or fixing or 
changing the place of voting. 

Changing the names of persons. 

Changing the venue in civil or criminal cases. 

Authorizing the laying out, opening, closing, altering or 
maintaining roads, highways, streets or alleys, or relating to 
ferries and bridges, or incorporating bridge or ferry companies, 
except for the erection of bridges crossing streams which form 
bounbaries between this and any other State. 

Authorizing the adoption or legitimation of childreu.or the 
emancipation of minors. 

Granting divorces. 

Changing the law of decent or succession. 

Aifecting the estates of minors or persons under disabilities. 

Remitting fines, penalties and lorfeitures or refunding 
moneys legally paid into the treasury. 

Authorizing the cnnstructiug of street passenger railroads 
in any incori^orated town or city. 

Eegulating labor, trade, manufacturing or agriculture. 

Creating corporations, or amending, renewing, extending or 
explaining the charter thereof; ^^romde^, that this shall not apply to 
the corporation of the city of New Orleans, or to the organiza- 
tion of levee districts and parishes. 

Granting to any corporation, association or individual any 
special or exclusive right, privilege or immunity. 

Extending the time fur the assessment or collection of taxes, 
or for the relief of any assessor or collector of taxes from the due 
performance of his official duties, or of his securities from lia- 



CONSTITUnON OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 15 

bility; nor shall any such be passed by any political corporation 
of this State. 

Eegulating the practice or jurisdiction of any court, or 
changing the rules of evidence in any judicial proceeding or 
inquiry before couits, or providing or changing methods for the 
collection of debts or the enforcement of judgments, or prescrib- 
ing the effects of judicial sales. 

Exemption of property from taxation. 

Fixing the rate of interest. 

Concerning any civil or criminal actions. 

Giving effect to informal or invalid wills or deeds, or to any 
illegal disposition of property. 

Eegulating the management of public schools, the building 
or repairing of school houses, and the raising of money for such 
purposes. 

Legalizing the unauthorized or invalid acts of any officer, 
servant, agent of the State, or of anj- parish or municipality 
thereof. 

Art. 47. The General Assembly shall not indirectlj^ enact 
special or local laws by the partial repeal of a general lawj but 
laws repealing local or special laws may be passed. 

Art. 48 Ko local or special laws shall be passed on any 
subject uot nnumerated in Article 46 of this Constitution, unless 
notice, of the intention to apply therefor shall have been pub- 
lished, without cost to the State, in the locality where the matter 
or thing to be affected may be situated, which notice shall state^ 
the substance ot the contemplated law, and shall be published at 
least thirty days prior to the introduction into the General As- 
sembly of such bill, and in the same manner provided by law for 
the advertiseiaent of judicial sales. The evidence of such notice 
having been published shall be exhibited in tlie General Assem- 
bly before such act shall be passed, and every such act shall con- 
tain a recital that such notice has been given. 

Art. 49. No law shall be passed fixing the price of manua 
labor. 

Art. 50. Any member of the General Assembly who has a 
personal or private interest in any measure or bill proposed or 
pending before the General Assembl}^ shall disclose the fact to 



16 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

the House of whicli he ivS a member, and shall not vote thereon. 

Art. 51. No money shall ever be taken from the public 
treasury, directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect or 
denomination of religion, or in aid of any priest, preacher, min- 
ister or teacher thereof, as such, and no preference shall ever be 
given to nor any discrimination made against, any church, sect 
or creed of religion, or any form of religious faith or worship, nor 
shall any appropriations be made for private charitable or be- 
nevolent purposes to any person or community; provided, this 
shall not apply to the State asylums for the insane and deaf, 
dumb and blind and the charity hospitals and public charitable 
institutions conducted under State authority. 

Art. 52. The General Assembly shall have no power to 
increase the exijenses of any office by appointing assistant 
officials. 

Art. 53. The geii'^ral appropriation bill shall embrace 
nothing but appropriations for the ordinary expenses of the 
government, interest on the public debt, public schools and 
public charities, and such bill shall be so itemized as to show 
for what account each and every appropria ion shall be made. 
All other appropriations shall be made by separate bills, each 
embracing but one object. 

Art. 54. Each appropriation shall be for a specific purpose, 
and no appropnation shall be made under the head or title of 
contingent; nor shall any officer or department of gevernment 
receive any amount from the treasury for contingencies or for a 
contingent fund. 

Art. 55. No appropriation of money shall be made by the 
General Assembly in the last five days of the session thereof; 
all appropriations to be valid, shall be passed and receive the 
signatures of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the 
House of Eepresentatives five full days before the adjournment 
sine die of the General Assembly. 

Art. 56. The funds, credit, property or things of value of 
the State, oi^ of any political corporation thereof, shall not be 
loaned, pledged or granted to or for any person or persons, asso- 
ciation or corporation, public or private; nor shall the State, or 
any political corporation, purchase or subst ribe to the capital or 



COXSTITUTIOX OF THE STATE ^F LOUISIANA. 17 

Stock of any corporatiou or association ^Yllatever, or for any 
private enterprise. Kor shall the State, nor any political corpor- 
ation thereof assam 3 the liabilities of any political, municipal, 
parochial, private, or other corporation or association whatsoever^ 
nor shall the State undertake to carry on the business of any 
such corporation or association, or become a i)art owner therein; 
provided, the State, through the General Assembly, shall have 
power to grant the right of way through its public lands to any 
railroad or canal. 

Art. 57. The General Assembly shall have no power to 
release or extinguish, or to authorize the releasing or extinguish 
ing, in whole or in part, the indebtedness, liability or obligation 
of any corporation or individual to this State, or to any jjarish 
or municipal corporation therein; provided, the heirs to confis- 
cated property may be released of all taxes dne thereon at the 
date of its reversion to them. 

EXECUTIVE DEPAETMENT. 

Art. 58. The Executive Department shall consist of a 
Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Auditor, Treasurer, and Sec- 
retary of State. 

Art. 59. The supreme executive power of the State shall 
be vested in a chief magistrate, who shall be styled the Gover- 
nor of Louisiana. He shall hold his office during tour years, and, 
together with the Lieutenant Governor, chosen for the same 
term, shall be elected as follows: The qualified electors for 
Eepresentatives shall vote for a Governor and Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor at the time and place of voting lor Eepresentatives. 

The returns of every election for Governor and Lieutenant 
Governor shall be sealed up separately from the returns of elec- 
tion of other officers, and transmitted by the iH^oper officer of 
every parish to the Secretary of State, who shall deliver them, 
unopened, to the General Assembly then next to be holden. 
The members of the General Assembly shall meet on the first 
Thursday after the day on which they assemble, in the House of 
Eepresentatives, to examine and count the votes. The person 
having the greatest numberof votes for Governor shall be declaried 



18 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

duly elected; but in case two or more persons shall be 
equal and bigbest in the number of votes polled for Governor, 
one of them shall immediately be chosen Governor by the joint 
vote of the members ot the General Assembly. The person 
having the greatest number of votes for Lieutenant Governor 
shall be Lieutenant Governor; but if two or more persons shall 
be equal and highest in number of votes polled for Lieutenant 
Governor, one of them shall be immediately chosen Lieutenant 
GoverLor, by joint vote of the members of the General Assembly. 

Art. go. No person shall be eligible to the office of Gover- 
nor or Lieutenant Governor who shall not have attained the age 
of thirty years, been ten years a citizen of the United States, and 
resident of the State for the same space of time next preceding 
his election, or w^ho shall be a member of Congress,* or shall hold 
office under the United States at the time of, or within six 
months immediately ]n'oceding the election for such office. 

Art. G1. The Governor shall enter on the discharge of his 
duties the first Monday next ensuing the announcement by the 
General Assembly of the result of the election for Governor, 
and shall continue in office until the Monday next succeeding 
the day that his successor shall have been declared duly elected 
and shall have taken the oath or affirmation required by this 
constitution. 

Art. G2. In case of the impeachment of the Governor, his 
removal from office, death, refnsual or inability to qualify, dis- 
ability, resignation or absence irom the State, the powers and 
duties of the office sluill devolve upon the Lieutenant Governor 
for the residue ot the term, or until the Governor, absent or im- 
peached, shall return or be acquitted or the disability be re- 
moved. In the event of the removal, impeachment, death, res- 
ignation, disability or refusal to quality of both the Governor 
and Lieutenant Governor, the President _pro tempore of the Sen- 
ate shall act as Governor until the disability be removed or for 
the residue of the term. 

That in the event of the death, or from whatever cause the 
office of Lieutenant Governor shall become vacant, then, and in 
that event, the Preside nt^ro tempore of the Senate shall fill the 



COXSTITUTIOX OF THE STATK OF LOUISIVXA. 19 

office of LieuteDaDt Governor, performing all the duties incident 
to the office and receiving its emoluments. 

Art. 63. The Lieutenant Governor, or officer discharging 
the duties of Governor, shall, during his administration, receive 
the same compensation to which the Governor would have been 
entitled had he continued in office. 

Art. 64. The Lieutenant Governor shall, by virtue of his 
office, be President of the Senate, but shall have only a casting 
vote therein. The Senate shall elect one of its members as Pres- 
ident _2)ro tempore of the Senate. 

Art. (So. The Lieutenant Governor shall receive for his 
services a salary which shall be double that of a member of the 
^General Assembly, and no more. 

Art. QQ. The Governor shall havepower to grant reprieves 
lor all offenses against the State, and, except in cases of im- 
peachment or treason, shall, upon the recommendation in writ- 
ing of the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and presiding 
judge of the court before which conviction was had, or of any 
two of them, have power to grant pardons, commute sentences, 
and remit fines and forfeitures af.er conviction. In cases of 
treason he may grant reprieves until the end of the next session 
of I he General Assembly, in which body the power of pardoning 
is vested. 

Art, 67. The Governor shall receive a salary of lour thou- 
sand dollars per annum, payable monthly on his own warrant. 

Art. 68, He shall nominate, and by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate, appoint all officers whose offices are 
established by this Constitution, and whose appointments or 
elections are not herein otherwise provided for-, provided, how- 
ever, that tne General Assembly shall have the right to prescribe 
the mode ot appointment or election to all offices created by it. 

Art. 69. The Governor shall have the power to fill vacan- 
cies that may hai^pen during the recess of the Senate, in cases 
not otherwise provided for in this Constitution, by granting 
commissions which shall exi)ire at the end of the next session . 
but no person who has been nominated for office and rejected, 
shall be appointed to the same office during the recess of the 
Senate. The failure of the Governor to send into the Senate 



20 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

the name of any person appointed for office, as herein provided, 
shall be equivalent to a rejection. 

Art. 70. He may require iuformation in writing from the 
officers in the Executive Department upon any subject relating 
to the duties of their respective offices. He shall be Command- 
er-in-Chief of the militia of the State, except when they shall be 
called into active service of the United States. 

Art. 71. He shall, from time to time, give to the General 
Assembly information respecting the situation of the State, and 
recommend to its consid<eration such measures as he may deem 
expedient. 

Art. 72. He shall take care that the laws be faithlully 
executed, and he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene the 
General Assembly at the seat of gov^ernment^ or, if that should 
have become dangerous from an enemy or from an epidemic, at 
a dilfereut place. The power to legislate shall be limited to the 
objects enumerated specifically in the proclamation convening 
such extraordinary session; therein the Governor shall also 
limit the time such session may continue; provided, it shall not 
exceed twenty days. Any legislative action had after the time 
so limited, or as to other objects than those enumerated in said 
proclamation, shall be null and void. 

Art. 73. Every bill which shall have passed both Houses, 
shall be presented to the Governor; if he approve, he shall 
sign it; if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to the 
House in which it originated, which House shall enter the ob- 
jections at large upon the journal, and proceed to reconsider it. 
If, after such consideration, two-thirds of all the members 
elected to that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, 
with the objections, to the other House, by which likewise it 
shall be reconsidered, and if passed by two-thirds of the mem- 
bers elected to that House, it shall be a law; but in such cases; 
the votes of both Houses shall be taken by yeas and nays, and 
the names of the members voting for and against the bill shall 
be entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any 
bill shall not be returned by the Governor within five days after 
it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in 
like manner as if he had signed it, unless the General Assembly, 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 21 

by adjournmei^t, sliall prevent its return, in wliick case it shall 
not be a law. 

Art. 74. The Governor shall have the power to disapprove 
of any item or items of any bill making appropriations of money, 
embracing distinct items, and the part or parts of the bill ap- 
proved shall be law and the item or items of appropriations 
disajDproved shall be void unless repassed, according to the 
rules and limitations prescribed for the passage of other bills, 
over the Executive veto. 

Art. 75. Every order, resolution or vote, to which the con- 
currence of both Houses may be necessary, except on a question 
of adjournment, or on matters of i)arliamentary proceedings, or 
an address for removal from office, shall be presented to the 
Governor, and before it shall take effect, be approved by him, 
or being disapproved, shall be repassed by two- thirds of the 
members elected to each House. 

Art. 76. The Treasurer, Auditor, Attorney General, and 
Secretary of State, shall be elected by the qualified elecors of 
the State for the term of four years 5 and in case of vacancy 
caused by death, resignation or i^ermanent absence of either of 
said officers, the Governor shall fill such vacancy by appoint- 
ment, with the advice and consent of the Senate; provided^ 
however, that notwithstanding such appointment, such vacancy 
shall be filled by election at the next election alter the occur- 
rence of the vacancy. 

Art. 77. The Auditor of Public Accounts shall receive a 
salaiyof two thousand five hundred dollars per annum; the 
Treasurer shall receive a salary of two thousand dollars per 
annum ; and the Secretary of State shall receive a salary of 
one thousand eight hundred dollars per annum. Each of ihe 
before named officers shall be paid monthly, and no fees or per- 
quisites or other compensation shall be allowed to said officers; 
provided^ the Secretary of State may be allowed fees as may be 
provided by law for copies and certificates furnished to private 
persons. 

Art. 78. Appropriations fur the clerical expenses of the 
officers named in the preceding article shall specify each item 
of such appropriations; and shall not exceed in any one year. 



22 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

for the Treasurer, the sum of two thousand dollars; for the 
Secretary of State, the sum of one thousand five hundred dol- 
lars; and for the Auditor of Public Accounts, the sum of four 
thousand dollars. 

Art. 79. All commissions shall be in the name and by the 
authority of the State of Louisiana, and shall be sealed with 
the State seal, signed by the Governor and countersigned by 
the Secretary of State. 

JUDIOIAEY DEPAETMENT. 

Art. 80. The judicial power shall be vested in a Supreme 
Court, in courts of appeal, in district courts and in justices of the 
peace. 

Art. 81. The Supreme Court, except in cases hereninafter 
jirovided, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which jurisdic- 
tion shall extend to all cases when the matter in disputf , or tbe 
fund to be distributed, whatever imiy be the amount therein 
claimed, shall exceed two thousand dollars, exclusive of interest; 
to suits for divorce and separation from bed and board; 
to suits for nullity of marriage; to suits involving 
the rights to homesteads; to suits for interdiction; and to 
all cases in which the constitutionality or legality of any tax, 
toll or impost whatever, or of any fine, forfeiture or penalty im- 
posed by a municipal corporation shall be in contestation, what- 
ever may be the amount thereof, and in such cas^s the appeal on 
the law and the fact shall be directly from the court in which 
the case origiiiated to the Sup:eme Court; and to criminal cases, 
on questions of law alone, whenever the punishment of death or 
imprisonment at hard labor may be inflicted, or a fine exceeding 
three hundred dollars ($300) is actually imposed. 

Art. 82. The Supreme Court shall be composed of one 
Chief Justice and four Associate Justices, a majority ot whom 
shall constitute a quorum. The Chief Justice and Associate 
Justices shall each receive a salary of five thousand dollars 
(5000) per annum, payable monthly on their own warrants. They 
shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate. The first Supreme Court to be orgrn- 
ized under this constitution shall be appointed as follows : The 



CONSTITUnON OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 23 

Chief Justice for the term of twelve years ; one Associate Jus- 
tice for the term of ten years ; one for the term of eight years , 
one for the term of six years ; and one for the term of four years , 
and the Governor shall designate in the commission of each the 
term for which sncli judge is appointeil. In case of death, resig- 
nation or removal from ofSce of any of said judges, the vacancy 
shall be filied by appointment for the unexpired term of said 
judge, aud upon expirrtion of the term of any said judges the 
office shall be filled by appointment for a term of twelv^e years. 
They shall be citizens of the United Slates, and of the State, 
over thirty- five years of age, learned in the law, and shall have 
practiced law in this State for ten years preceding their 
appointment. 

Art. 83. The State shall be divided into four Supr^eme 
Court Districts, and the Sui)reme Court shall always be com- 
posed of judges appointed from said districts. The parishes of 
Orleans, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, St. Bernard, Plaque- 
mines and Jefferson shall compose the first district, from which 
two judges shall be appointed. 

The parishes of Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Bienville. Clai- 
borne, Union, Lincoln, Jackson, Caldwell, Ouachita, Morehouse, 
Kichland, Franklin, West Carroll, East Carroll, Madison, Tensas 
and Catahoula shall compose the second district, from which 
one judge shall be appointed. 

The parishes of DeSoto, Eed Eiver, Winn, Grant, Natchi- 
toches, Sabine, Vernon, Calcasieu, Cameron, Eapides, Avoyelles^ 
Concordia, Pointe Coupee, West Baton Eouge, Iberville, St. 
Landry, Lafayette and Vermilion shall compose the third district, 
from which one judge shall be appointed. 

Aud the parishes of St. Martin, Iberia, St. Mary, Terre- 
bonne, Latourche, Assumption, St. James, Ascension, East 
Eouge, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, St. Helena, Livingston, 
Tangipahoa, St. Tammany and Washington shall comj)ose the 
fourth district, from which one judge shall be appointed. 

Art. 84. The Supreme Court shall hold its sessions in the 
city of New Orleans from the first Monday in the month of 
November to the end of the month of May in each and every 
year. The General Assembly shall have power to fix the ses- 



24 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

sions elsewhere duiing tlie rest of the year. Until otherwise 
provided, the sessions shall be held as heretofore. They shall 
appoint their own clerks and remove them at pleasure. 

^RT. 85. No judgment shall be rendered by the Supreme 
Court without the concurrence of three judges. Whenever three 
members cannot concur, in consequence of the recusation of any 
member or members of the court, the judges not recused shall 
have authority to call upon uny judge or judges of the district 
courts, whose duty it shall be, when so called upon, to sit in the 
place of the judge or judges recused, and to aid in the deter- 
mination of the case. 

Art. 86. All judges, by virtue of their office, shall be con- 
servators of the the peace throughout the State- The style of all 
process shall be, "The State of Louisiana." All prosecutions 
shall be carried on "in the name and by the authority of the State 
of Louisiana," and conclude: "Against the peace and dignity of 
the same." 

Art. 87. The judges of all courts, whenever practicable, 
shall refer to the law by virtue of which every definite judgment 
is rendered; but in all cases they shall adduce the reasons on 
which their judgment is founded. 

Art. 88. There shall be a reporter of the decisions of the 
Supreme Court, Avho shall report in full all cases which he may 
be required to report by law or by the court. He shall publish 
in the reports the title, numbers and head notes of all cases 
decided, whether reported in full or not. 

In all cases reported in full he shall make a brief statement 
of the principal points presented and authorities cited by 
counsel. 

He shall be appointed by a majority of the court, and hold 
. his office and be removable at their pleasure. 

His salary shall be fixed by the court, and shall not exceed 
fifteen hundred dollars per annum, payable monthly on his own 
warrant. 

Art. 89. The Supreme Court and each of the judges 
thereof shall have power to issue writs of habeas corpus at the 
instance of all persons in actual custody, in cases where it may 
have appellate jurisdiction. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 25 

Art. 90. The Supreme Court shall have control and gen- 
eral supervision over all inferior courts. They shall have power 
to issue writs of certiorari, prohibition, mandamvs, quo tear rantOj 
and other remedial writs. 

Art. 91. The General Assembly shall provide for appeals 
from the district courts to the Supreme Court upon questions of 
law alone, when the party or parties aggrieved desire only a 
review of the law. 

Art. 92. Except as herein provided no duties or functions 
shall ever be attached by law to the Supreme Court, courts of 
appeal or district courts, or the several judges thereof, but sucli 
as are judicial; and the said judges are prohibited from receiv- 
ing any fees of office or other compensation than their salaries 
for any official duties performed by them. No judicial powers, 
except as committing magistrates in criminal cases, shall be con- 
ferred on any officers other than those mentioned in this title, 
except such as may be necessary in towns and cities, and the 
judicial powers of such officers shall not extend further than the 
cognizance of cases arising under the police regulations of 
towns and cities in the State. 

Art. 93. The judges of all courts shall be liable to impeach- 
ment for crimes and misdemecnors. For any reasonable cause 
the Governor shall remove any of them on the address of two- 
thirds of the members elected to each house of the General As- 
sembly. In every case the cause or causes for which such re- 
moval may be required shall be st-;t3d at length in the address, 
and inserted in the journal of each house. 

ATTOEKEY GEXEBAL. 

Art. 91. There shall be an Attorney General for the State, 
who shall be elected by the qualified electors of the State at 
large every four years. He shall be learned in the law, and 
shall have actually resided and practiced law, as a licensed 
attorney in the State five years next preceding his election. He 
shall receive a salary of three thousand dollars per annum; 
payable monthly on his own warrant. 



26 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

OOUETS OF APPEAL. 

Art. 95. The courts of appeal, except in cases liereinafter 
provided, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which juris- 
diction shall extend to all cases, civil or probate, when the 
matter in dispute or the funds to be distributed shall exceed 
one hundred dollars, exclusive of interest, and shall not exceed 
two thousand dollars, exclusive of interest. 

Art. 9(3. The courts of appeal shall be composed of two 
circuit judges, shall be elected by the two houses of the General 
Assembly in joint session. The first judges of the courts of 
appeal under this constitution shall be elected for the follow- 
ing terms: One judge for each court for the term of four years 
and one judge for the terz: of eight years. 

They shall be learned in tlie law and shall have resided and 
practiced law in this State for six years, and shall have been 
actual residents of the circuit from wliich they shall be elected 
for at least two years next prcceJiug their election. 

Art. 97. The State, with tlie excei)tion of the parish of 
Orleans, shall be divided into five circuits, from each of which 
two judges shall be elected. Until otherwise provided by law, 
the parishes of Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Bienville, DeSoto, Eed 
Kiver, Claiborne, Union, Lincoln, Natchitoches, Sabine, Jack- 
son, Winn and Caldwell shall compose the First Circuit. 

The parishes of Ouachita, Eichland, Morehouse, West 
Carroll, Catahoula, Franklin, Madison, East Carroll, Concordia 
and Tensas shall compose the Second Circuit. 

The parishes of Eapides, Grant, Avoyelles, St. Landry, 
Vernon, Calcasieu, Cameron, Lafayette, Vermilion, St. Martin 
and Iberia shall compose the Third Circuit. 

The parishes of East Baton Eouge, West Baton Eouge, 
Iberville, East Feliciana, St. Helena, T-^ngipahoa, Livingston, 
St. Tammany, Washiogston, Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana 
shall compose the Fourtli Circuit. 

And the parishes of St. ]\rary, Terrebor.ne, Ascension, La- 
fourche, Assumption, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, Jeft'ersou, St. 
Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James shall compose the 
Fifth Circuit. 



CONSTITLTEON OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 27 

Art. 98. The judges of the courts of appeal, until other- 
wise provided by ];nv, shall bold two terms annually in each 
l^arish composing their respective circuits. 

Art. 99. Until otlierwise provided by law, the terms of the 
circuit courts of appeal shall be as follows : 

riEST CIRCUIT. 

Caddo — First Mondays in January- and June, 
Bossier — Third Mondaj^s in January and June. 
Webster — First Mondays in February and July. 
Bienville — Second Mondays in February and July. 
Claiborne — Third Mondays in February and July. 
Union — First Mondays in March and October. 
Lincoln — Second Mondays in March and October. 
Jackson — Third Mondays in March and October. 
Caldwell — Fourth Mondays in March and October. 
Winn — First Mondays in April and IsTovember. 
]N"atchitoches — Second Mondays in April and November. 
Sabine — Fourth Mondays in April and November. 
DeSoto — First Mondays in May and December. 
Eed Eiver — Third Mondays in May and December. 

SECOND CIRCUIT, 

Ouachita — First Mondays in Jannary and June. 
Richland — Fourth Mondays in January and June. 
Franklin — First Mondays in February and July. 
Catahoula — Second Mondays in February and July 
Concordia — Fourth Mondays in February and July. 
Tensas — Second Mondays in March and October. 
Madison — Fourth Mondays in March and October. 
East Carroll — Second Mondays in April and November. 
West Carroll — Fourth Mondays in April and November. 
Morehouse — First Mondays in May and December. 

THIRD CIRCUIT. 

St. Landry — First Mondays in January and June. 
Avoyelles — Fourth Mondays in January and June. 
Rapides — Second Mondays in February and July. 
Grant — Fourth Mondays in February and July. 



28 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

Yernon — First Mondays in March and October. 
Calcasieu — Second Mondays in March and October. 
Cameron — Fourth Mondays in March and October. 
Yermilion — First Mondays in April and November. 
Lafayette — Second Mondays in April and November. 
Iberia — Fourth Mondays in April and November. 
St. Martin — Second Mondays in May and December. 

FOURTH CmCUIT. 

Eastr^aton Eouge — First Mondays in January and June. 
West Baton Rouge — Fourth Mondays in January and June. 
Livingston^ — First Mondays in February and July. 
Tangipahoa — Second Mondays in February and July. 
St. Tammany — Fourth Mondays in February and July. 
Washington — First Mondays in March and October. 
St. Helena — Second Mondays in March and October. 
East Feliciana — Fourth Mondays in March and October. 
West Feliciana — Second Mondays in April and November. 
Pointe Coupee — Fourth Mondays in April and November. 
Iberville — Second Mondays in May and December. 

FIFTH CIRCUIT. 

St. Mary — First Mondays in January and June. 

Terrebonne — Third Mondays in January and June. 

Assumption — First Mondays in February and July. 

Lafourche — Third Mondays in February and July. 

St. Charles — First Mondays in March and October. 

Jefferson — Second Mondays in March and October. 

St. Bernard — Fourth Mondays in March and October. 

Plaquemines — First Mondays in April and November. 

St. John the Baptist — Second Mondays in April at;d No- 
vember. 

St. James — Third Mondays in April and November. 

Ascension — Second Mondays in May and December. 

Art. 100. Whenever the first day of the term shall fall on 
a legal holiday, the court shall begin its sessions on the first 
legal day thereafter. 

Art. 101. Whenever the judges composing the courts of 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 29 

appeal shall concur, their jadginent shall be final. Whenever 
there shall be a clisaG:reenient, the two judges shall appoint a 
lawyer having the qualifications for a judge of the Court of Ap- 
peals of their circuit, who shall aid in the determination of the 
case; a judgment concurred in by any two of thpm shall be final. 

Art. 102. All causes on appeal to the courts of appeal 
shall be tried on the original record, pleadings and evidence in 
the district court. 

Art. 103. The rules of practice regulating appeals to, and 
proceedings in the Supreme Court, shall apply to api^eals and 
proceedings in the courts of appeal, so far as they may be appli- 
cable, un:il otherwise provided by law. 

Art. 104. The judges of the courts of ai)peal shall have 
power to issue writs of habeas corpus at the instance of all per- 
sons in actual custody within their respective circuits. They 
shall also have authority to issue writs of mandamus^ prohibition 
and certiorari^ in aid of their appellate jurisdiction. 

Art. 105. The judges of courts of appeal shall each re- 
ceive a salary of four thousand dollars per annum, payable 
monthly on their respective warrants. 

The General Assembly shall provide by law for the trial of 
recused cases in the courts of appeal. 

Art. 100. The^ sheriff of the parish in which the sessions 
of the court are held, shall attend in person, or by deputy, to 
execute the orders of the court. 

DISTEICT COURTS. 

Art. 107. The State shall be divided into not less than 
twenty, nor more than thirty, judicial districts, the parish of 
Orleans excepted. 

Art. 108. Until otherwise provided by law, there shall be 
twenty-six districts. 

*The parish of Caddo shall compose the first district. 

The parishes of Bossier, Webster and Bienville shall com- 
pose the Second District. 

The i)arishes of Claiborne, Union and Lincoln shall compose 
the Third District. 

*The number of judges was increased to two in the First District bv Act ISTo. 71, of 1882, 
p. 93. 



30 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATH OF LOUISIANA. 

The parishes of JacksoD, Winn and Caklwell shall compose 
the Fourth District. 

*The parishes of Ouachita and Eichland shall compose the 
Fifch District. 

fThe parishes of Morehouse and West Carroll shall compose 
the Sixth District. 

The parishes of Catahoula and Franklin shall compose the 
Seventh District. 

The parishes of Madison ard East Carroll shall compose 
the Eighth District. 

The iiarishes of Concordia and Tensas shall compose the 
Ninth District. 

The parishes of DeSoto and Eed Eivcr shal. compose the 
Tenth District. 

The parishes of Natchitoches and Sabine shall couiposc thu 
Eleventh District. 

|The parishes of Eapitles, Grant and Avoyelles shall com- 
pose the Twelfth District. 

The parish of St. Landry shall compose the Thirteenth 
District. 

The parishes of Yernon, Calcasieu and Cameron shall com- 
pose the Fouteenth District. 

The paiishes of Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana shall 
compose the Fifteenth District. 

The parishes of East Feliciana and St. Helena shall com- 
pose the Sixteenth District. 

The parish of East Baton L'ouge shall compose the Seven- 
teenth District. 

The parishes of Tangipahoa, Livingston, St. Tammany and 
Washington shall compose the Eighteenth District. 

The parishes of St. Mary and Terrebonne shall compose the 
Nineteenth District. 

The parishes of Lafourche and Assumption shall compose 
the Twentieth District. 

. L__ 

-The parish of Eichland was detached from the Eifth District by Act iS^o. 89, of 1882 
p. 111. 

tThe parish of West CaiToll was detached from the Sixth District bv Act Xo. 89 of 188> 
p. 111. " "< 

;The number of Judges iu the Twelfth Dis^-rict was increased to two by Act Xo. 22, of 

JaW — j J). t>C7- ( 



CONSriTUTION OF TRE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 31 

The parishes of St. Martin and Iberia shall compose the 
Twenty-first District. 

The parishes of Ascension and St. James shall compose the 
Twenty-second District. 

The parishes of West Baton Eouge and Iberville shall com- 
pose the Twenty-third District. 

The parishes of Plaquemines and St. Bernard shall compose 
the Twenty-fourth District. 

Ths parishes of Lafayette and Vermilion shall compose the 
Twenty-fifth District. 

The parishes of Jefferson, St. Charles and St. John the Bap- 
tist shall compose the Twenty sixth District. 

*The x^arishes ot West Orrroll and Richland shall compose 
the Twenty-seveuth District. 

Art. 109. District courts shall have original iurisdiction 
in all civil matters where the amount in dispute shall exceed 
fifty dollars, exclusive of interest. 

They shall have unlimited original jurisdiction in all criminal, 
probate and succession matters, and when a succession is a party 
defendant. 

The district judges shall be elected by a plurality of the 
qualified voters of their respective districts, in which they shall 
have been actual residents for two years next i)receding their 
election. 

They shall be learned in the law, and shall have practiced 
law in the State for five years previous to their election. 

They shall be elected for the term ot four years. All elec- 
tions to fill vacancies occasioned by death, resignation or re- 
moval, shall be for the unexpired term, and the Governor shall 
fi.l the vacancy until an election can be held. 

The judges of the district court shall each receive a salary 
of three thousand dollars per annum, payable monthly on their 
respective warrants. 

Akt. 110. The General Assembly shall have power to in- 
crease the number of district judges in any district whenever 
the public business may require. 

■ '-Act iJ'o. 87, of 1882, p. 111. 



32 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

Art. 111. The district court shall have jarisdiction of ap- 
peals from justices of the peace in all matters where the amount 
in controversy shall exceed ten dollars, exclusive of interest. 

Art. 112. The General Assembly shall provide by law for 
the trial of recused cases in the district courts, by the selection 
of licensed attorneys at law, by an interchange oi judges, or 
otherwise. 

Art. 113. Wherever in this Constitution the qualification 
of any justice or judge shall be the previous practice of the law 
for a term of years, there shall be included in such term the 
time such justice or judge shall have occupied the bench of any 
court ^of record in this State ; provided, he shall have been 
a licensed attorney for five years before his election or appoint- 
ment. 

Art. 114. Ko judge of any court of the State shall be af- 
fected in his term of office, salary or jurisdiction as to territory 
or amount during the term or iieriod for which he was elected 
or appointed. Any legislation so affecting any judge or court 
shall take effect only at the end of the term of office of the 
judge or judges, incumbents of the court or courts to which 
such legislation may apply at the time of its enactment. This 
article shall not affect the provisions of this constitution relative 
to impeachment or removal from office. 

Art. 115. The district judges shall have power to issue 
writs of habeas corpus at the instance of all persons in actual 
custody in their respective districts. 

Art. 116. The General Assembly at its first session under 
this constitution shall provide by general law for the selection 
of competent and intelligent jurors, who shall have capacity to 
serve as grand jurors and try and determine both civil and 
criminal cases, and may provide, in civil cases, that a verdict be 
rendered by the concurrence of a less number than the whole. 

Art. 117. In those districts composed of one parish, there 
shall not be less than six terms of the district court each year. 

In all other districts there shall be in each parish not less 
than four terms of the district court each year, except in the 
parishes of Cameron, Franklm and YernoQ, in which there shall 
not be less than two terms of the district court each year. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 33 

Until provided by law, the terms of the district court in 
each parish be fixed by a rule of said court, which shall not be 
changed without notice by publication at least thirty days prior 
to such change. 

There shall be in each parish not less than two jury terms 
each year, at which a grand jury shall be impaneled, except in 
the parishes of Cameron, Franklin and Yernon, in which there 
shall not be less than one jury term each year at which a grand 
jury shall be impaneled. 

At other jury terms the General Assembly shall provide 
for special juries, when necessary for the trial of criminal cases. 

SHERIFFS AND CORONEES. 

Art. 118. There shall be a sheriff and coroner elected by 
the qualified voters of each i)arish in the State, except the par- 
ish of Orleans, who shall be elected at the general elections and 
hold office for four years. 

The coroner shall act for and in place of the sheriff when- 
ever the sheriff shall be party interested, and whenever there 
shall be a vacancy in the office of sheriff", until such vacancy 
shall be filled j but he shall not during such vacancy discharge 
the duties of tax coUecter. 

The sheriff, except in the parish of Orleans, shall be ex- 
officio collector of State and parish taxes. 

He shall give separate bonds for the faith fi^l x)erformance of 
his duty in each capacity. Until otherwise provided, the bonds 
shall be given according to existing laws. 

The General Assembly, after the adoption of this constitu- 
tion, shall pass a general law regulating the amount, form, con- 
dition and mode of approval of such bonds, so as to fully secure 
the State and parish, and all parties in interest. 

Sheriffs elected at the first election under this constitution 
shall comply with the provisions of such law, within thirty days 
after its promulgation, in default of which the office shall be 
declared vacant, and the Governor shall appoint for the remain- 
der of the time. 

Art. 119. Sheriffs shall receive compensation from the 
parish tor their services in criminal matters (the keeping of 



34 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

prisoners, conveying convicts to the Penitentiary, insane persons 
to the Insane Asylum, and service of process from another par- 
ish, and service of process or the performance of any duty be- 
yond the limits of his own parish excepted), not to exceed five 
hundred dollars per annum for each Representative the parish 
may have in the House of Eepresentatives. 

The compensation of sheriffs as tax collectors shall not ex- 
ceed five per cent on the amount collected and paid over j X)ro- 
vided, that he shall not be discharged as tax collector until he 
makes proof that he has exhausted the legal remedies to collect 
the taxes. 

Art. 120. The coroner in each parish shall be a doctor of 
medicine, regularly licensed to practice, ahd oj;-(/^Y*io parish phy- 
sician ; ^^roriV/e^?, this article shall not apply to any parish in 
which there is no regularly licensed physician who will accept 
the ofBce. 

CLERKS. 

Art. 121. There shall be a clerk of the district court in 
each parish, the x)arish of Orleans excepted, who shall be ex- 
officio clerk of the court of appeals. 

He shall be elected by the qualified electors of the parish 
every four years; and shall be ex-officio ]\nrish record r of con- 
veyances, mortgages and other acts, and notary public. 

He shall receive no compensation for his services from the 
State, or the parish, in criminal matters. 

He shall give bond and security for the faithful performance 
of his duties, in such amount as shall be fixed by the General 
A ssembly. 

Art. 122. The General Assembly shall have power to vest 
in clerks of courts authority to grant such orders, and to do such 
acts as may be deemed necessary for the furtherance of the ad- 
ministraiion of justice; and in all cases, powers thus vested 
shall be specified and determined. 

Art. 123. Clerks of district courts may appoint, with the 
approval of the district judge, deputies, with such powers as 
shall be prescribed by law; and the General Assembly shall 
have power to provide for continuing one or more of them in 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 35 

office^ in the event of the death of the clerk, until his successor 
shall have been appointed and duly qualified. 

DISTEIGT ATTOKNEYS. 

Art. 124. There shall be a district attorney for each judi- 
cial district in the State, who shall be elected by the qualified 
electors of the judicial district. He shall receive a salary of one 
thousand dollars per annum, payable monthly on his own war- 
rant, and shall hold his office for four years. He shall be an 
actual resident of the district, and a licensed attorney at law in 
this State. 

He shall also receive fees; but no fees shall be allowed in 
criminal cases, except on conviciion. 

Any vacancy in the office of district attorney shall be filled 
by appointment by the Governor for the uxexpired term. There 
shall be no parish attorney, or district attorney, ino tempore. 
(This article shall not apply tc the parish of Orleans,) 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 

Art. 125. In each parish, the parish of Orleans excepted, 
there shall be as many justices of the peace as may be provided 
by law. 

The present number of justices of the peace shall remain as 
now fixed until otherwise provided. They shall be elected for 
the term of four years by the qualified voters within the territo- 
rial limits of their jurisdiction. 

They shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all civil 
matters wht^ n the amount in dispute shall not exceed fifty dollars, 
exclusive of interest, and original jurisdiction concurrent with 
the district court, when the amount in dispute shall exceed fifty 
dollars, exclusive of interest, and shall not exceed one hundred 
dollars, exclusive of interest. 

They shall have no j urisdiction in succession or probate mat- 
ters, or when a succession is a defendant. They shall receive 
such fees or salary as may be fixed by law. 

Art. 126. They shall have criminal jurisdiction as com- 
mitting magistrates, and shall have power to bail or discharge 
in cases not capital or necessarily punishable at hard labor. 



36 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

OOKSTABLES. 

Art. 127. There shall be a cod stable for the court of each 
justice of the peace in the several parishes of the State, the par- 
ish of Orleans excepted, who shall be elected for the term of four 
years by the qualified voters within the territorial limits of the 
jurisdiction of the several justices of the ijeace. 

The compensation, salaries, or fees of constables and the 
amount of their bond&, shall be fixed by the General Assembly. 

COURTS OF THE PARISH A^D CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. 

Art. 128. I here shall be in the parish of Orleans a court 
of appeals for said parish, with exclusive appellate jurisdiction 
in all matters, civil or probate, arising in said parish, when the 
amount in dispute or fund to be distribvited exceeds one hun- 
dred dollars, exclusive of interest, and does not exceed two thous- 
and dollars, exclusive of interest; said court shall be presided over 
by two judges who shall be elected by the General Assembly in 
joint session; they shall be residents and voters of the city of 
New Orleans, possessing all the qualifications necessary for 
judges of circuit courts of appeals throughout the State; they 
shall each receive an annual salary of four thousand dollars, 
payable monthly upon their respective warrants. 

Said appeals shall be upon questions of law alone, in all 
cases, involving less than five hundred dollars, exclusive of in- 
terest, and upon the law and facts in other cases. 

It shall sit in the city of New Orleans, from the first Monday 
of Is^ ovember to the last Monday of June of each year. 

It shall have authority to issue writs of mandamus, prohi- 
bition, certiorari and habeas corpus in aid of its appellate juris- 
diction. 

Art. 129. The provisions of this constitution, relating to 
the termof oflace, qualifications and salary of the judges of the 
circuit courts of appeal throughout the State, and the manner 
of proceeding and determining causes as applicable to such cir- 
cuit courts of appeal, shall apply to this court and its judges, 
in so far as such provisions are not in conflict with the provis- 
ions specially relating to said court and its judges* 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 37 

Said Court of Api^eals shall have jurisdiction of all causes 
now pending on appeal from the parish ot Orleans before the 
Supreme Court of the State where the amount in dispute or fund 
to be distributed is less than one thousand dollars, exclusive of 
interest, and the Supreme Court shall at once transfer said 
causes to the Court of Appeals. 

Art. 130. For the parish of Orleans there shall be two 
district courts and no more. One of said courts shall be known 
as the Civil District Court for the parish of Orleans; and the 
other as the Criminal District Court for the parish of Orleans. 
The former shall consist of not less than five judges, and the 
latter not less than two judges having the qualifications pres- 
cribed for district judges throughout the State. The said judges 
shall be appointed by the Governor by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, for the term of eight years. The first ap- 
pointment shall be made as follows: Three judges of the Civil 
District Court for four years and two judges for eight years. One 
judge of the Criminal District Court for four years and one for 
eight years, the terms to be designated in their commissions. 

The said judges shall receive each four thousand dollars per 
annum. Said Civil District Court shall have exclusive and 
general probate, and exclusive civil jurisdiction in all cases 
when the amount in dispute or to be distributed exceeds one hun- 
dred (1100) dollars exclusive of interest, and exclusive 
appellat jurisdiction from the city courts of the i^arish of 
Orleans, when the amount in dispute exceeds twenty-five dollars 
exclusive of interest. All causes filed in said court 
shall be equally alotted and assigned among said judges, 
in accordance with rules of court to be adopted for the purpose. 
In case of recusation of any judge in any cause, such cause shall 
be reassigned, or in case of absence trom the parish, sickness 
or the disability of the judge to whom said cause may have been 
assigned, any judge of said court may issue or grant conserva- 
tory writs or orders. In other respects each judge shall have 
exclusive control over every cause assigned to him from its 
inception to its final determination in said court. The Criminal 
District Court shall have criminal jurisdiction only. 
All prosecutions instituted in said court shall be equally 



38 COxNSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

apportioned between said judges by lot. Each judge, or his 
successor, shall have exclusive control over every cause falling 
to him from its inception to its final determ nation in said court. 
In case of vacancy or recusation causes assigned shall be reas- 
signed under order of court. 

Art. 131. The General Assembly may increase the number 
of judges of the Civil District Court, not, however, to exceed 
nine judges, and the number of the criminal judges not to exceed 
three. 

Art. 132. The Court of Appeals and the Civil and Crimi- 
nal District Courts for the parish of Orleans shall respectively 
regulate the order of preference and trial of causes pend- 
ing, and adopt other rules to govern the proceedings therein, 
not in conflict with the provisions of law. 

Art. 133. The Civil District Court for the, parish of Or- 
leans shall select a solvent incorporated bank of the city of Kew 
Orleans as a judicial depository. Therein shall be deposited all 
moneys, notes, bondi^ and securities (except such notes or docu 
ments as may be filed with suits or in evidence, which shall be 
kept by the clerk of court), so soon as the same shall come into 
the hands of any sheriff or clerk of court* such deposits shall 
be removable, in whole or in part, only upon order of court. 
The officer makiug such deposits shall make immediate and 
written return to the court of the date and particulars thereof, 
to be filed in the cause in which the matter is pending, under 
penalties to be prescribed by law. 

Art. 134. There shall be a district attorney for the parish 
of Orleans, who shall possess the same qualifications and be 
elected in the same manner and for the same period of time as 
the district attorneys lor other parishes, as provided by this 
constitution. 

He shall receive a sa'ary of one thousand dollars per annum 
and such fees as may be allowed by lawj but no fee shall be al- 
lowed in criminal cases except on conviction. 

He may appoint an afe^istant at a salary not to exceed fif- 
teen hundred dollars per annum. 

Art. 135. There shall be in the city of i^ew Orleans four 
city courts, one of which shall be located in that portion of the 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 39 

city on the rigbt bank of the Mississippi river, presided over by 
judges having all the qualifications required for a district judge, 
and shall be elected by the qualified voters for the term of four 
years; they shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all sums not 
exceeding one hundred dollars, exclusive of interest, subject 
to an appeal to the Civil District Court when the amount claimed 
exceeds twenty-five dollars, exclusive of interest. The General 
Assembly shall regulate the salaries, territorial division of jur- 
isdiction, the manner of executing their process, the fee bill, and 
jDroceedings which shall govern them; they shall have authority 
to execute commissions, to take testimony and receive therefor 
such fees as may be allowed by law. 

The General Assembly may increase the number of city 
courts for the said parish, not to exceed eight in all, uutil other- 
wise provided by law. Each of said courts shall have one 
clerk, to be elected for the term of four years by the qualified 
voters of the parish, who shall receive a salary of twelve hun- 
dred dollars per annum, and no more, and whose qualifications, 
bond and duties shall be regulated by law. 

Art. 136. The General assembly may provide for i^olice or 
magistrates' courts, but such courts shall not be vested with 
jurisdiction beyond the enforcement of municipal ordinances or 
as committing magistrates. 

Art. 137. There shall be one clerk for the Civil District 
Court and one for the Criminal District Court of the parish of 
Orleans. The former shall be ex-officio clerk of the Court of Ap- 
peals of said parish. 8aid clerks shall be removable in the man- 
ner provided for the removal of the sheriffs of said parish. The 
Clerk of said Civil District Court shall receive an annual salary 
of three thousand six hundred dollars, and no more; and the 
clerk of the Criminal Court an annual salary of three thousand 
dollars, and no more, both payable on their warrants. They 
shall be elected by the qualified voters of the parish for the term 
of four years. 

The amount and character of the bonds and qualification of 
Ihe sureties to be furnished by said clerks shall be ijrescribed by 
law. 

Art. 138. The Court of Appeals and each judge of the Civil 



40 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

and Criminal District Court of the parish of Orleans shall ap- 
point a minute clerk at an annual salary of not more than 
eighteen hundred dollars, whose duties shall be regulated by 
law. Each clerk of court shall appoint, by and with the consent 
of the district court of which he is clerk, such deputies as may 
be necessary to perform officially the duties of said office, at sal- 
aries to be fixed by law. He shall be responsible for the said 
deputies, and may require from each such security as he may 
deem sufficient to secure himself, and said deputies shall be 
removable ai his pleasure. 

Art. 139. There shall be a civil and a criminal sherift for 
the parish of Orleans. The civil sherift* shall be the executive 
officer of all the civil courts, (except city courts;) and the criminal 
sheriff shall be the executive officer of the Criminal District 
Court. 

They shall attend the sittings, execute the writs and man- 
dates of their respective courts. They shall be elected by the 
voters of the parish of Orleans every four years. They shall be 
citizens of the State, residents and voters of the city of New Or- 
leans, at least twenty-five years of age, and shall be removable 
each by the district court of which he is the executive officer, 
upon proof after trial, without jury, of gross or continued neg- 
lect, incompetency or unlawful conduct, operating injury to the 
court or any individual. The two district courts for the parish 
of Orleans shall immediately ui)on organization under this con- 
stitution, in joint session, adopt rules governing the lodging of 
complaints against and the trial of such officers; and such rules, 
once adopted, shall not be changed, except by the unanimous con- 
sent of all the judges composing the said courts. 

Art. 140. The civil sheriff of the parish of Orleans shall 
receive such fees as the General Assembly may fix. He shall 
render monthly accounts, giviog amounts and dates, number 
and title of causes wherein received or paid out, of all sums col- 
lected and disbursed by him, which shall be filed in the Civil 
District Court of said parish and form a part of its public 
records. 

He shall be responsible to the State for all profits of said 
office over ten thousand dollars per annum, and shall settle with 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 41 

the State at least once a year in such manner as the General 
Assembly may i)rovide. 

The criminal sheriff shall receive an annual salary of thirty- 
six hundred dollars and no more. He shall receive no other 
compensation. He shall charge and collect for the State from 
parties convicted such fees and charges as may be fixed by law 
and shall render monthly accounts of the same. 

Art. 341. Said sheriffs shall appoint, each with the consent 
and approval of the district court which he serves, such a num- 
ber of deputies as the said court may find necessary lor the 
proper expedition of the public business, at such salaries as may 
be fixed by law. Each sheriff shall be responsible for his depu- 
ties, and may remove them at pleasure and fill vacancies with the 
approval of the court, and may exact from all deputies security 
in such manner and amount as such sheriff in ay deem necessary. 

Art. 142. The civil sheriff for said parish shall execute a 
bond with sureties, residents of said parish, conditioned tor the 
lawful and faithful performance of the duties of his office, in the 
sum of fifty thousand dollars. The sureties shall be examined 
in open court by the judges of the Civil District Court for the 
parish of Orleans, and the questions and answers shall be re- 
duced to writing and form a portion of the records ot said court. 

A similar bond shall be executed by the criminal sheriff' of 
said parish in the sum of ten thousand dollars, with sureties to 
be examined and approved as to solvency by the Criminal Dis- 
trict Court ot said parish, as herein directed for the Civil Dis- 
trict Court of said parish in the case of the civil sheiiff'. 

Art. 143. There shall be one constable for each city court 
of the parish of Orleans, who shall be the executive officer of such 
court. He shall be elected by the qualified voters of the parish 
of Orleans for the term of four years. The General Assembly 
shall define his qualifications and fix his compensation and 
duties, and shall assimilate the same so far as practicable to the 
provisions ot this constitution relating to the civil sheriff of said 
parish. The judges of the city courts shall sit in bane to exam- 
ine such bonds, try and remove constables and adopt rules reg- 
ulating such trial and removal. They shall in such proceedings, 
be governed so far as practicable by the provisions of this con- 



42 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

stitution regulating the proceedings of the district courts of the 
parish of Orleans in the case of the sheriffs of said parish. 

Art. 144. There shall be a register of conveyances and a 
recorder of mortages for the parish of Orleans, who shall be 
elected by the qualified electors of said parish every four years. 
The register of conveyances shall receive an annual salary of 
twenty-five hundred dollars and no more, and said recorder of 
mortgages an annual salary of four thosand dollars and no more. 
The General Assembly shall regulate the qualifications and du- 
ties of said ofi&cers and the number of employes they shall ap- 
point, and fix the salaries of such employes, not to exceed 
eighteen hundred dollars per annum for each. 

Art. 145. The General Assembly, at its first session after 
the adoption of this constitution, shall enact a fee bill for the 
clerks of the various courts, including the city courts, sitting in 
New Orleans, and for tne civil and criminal sheriffs, constables, 
register of convey ances and recorder of mortgages of said i^arish. 
lu the same act provision shall be made for a system of stamps 
or stamped paper for the collection by the State, and not by said 
officers, of snch fees and charges, so far as clerks of courts, reg- 
ister of conveyances and recorder of mortgages are concerned. 

Art. 146. All fees and charges fixed by law for the various 
civil courts of the parish of Orleans, and for the register of convey- 
ances and recorder of mortgages of said parish shall enure to the 
State, and all sums realized therefrom shall be set aside and 
held as a special fund, out of which shall be paid by preference 
the expenses of the clerk of the civil district court, the clerks of 
the city courts, the register of conveyances and the recorder of 
of mortgages of the parish ot Orleans^ provided^ that the 
State shall never make any payment to any sheriff*, clerk, regis- 
ter of conveyances or recorder of irortgages of the parish of 
Orleans, or any of their deputies for salary or other expenses of 
their respective of&ces, except from the special fund x)rovided 
tor by this article, and any appropriation made contrary to this 
provision shall be null and void. 

Art. 147. There shall be one coroner for the parish of Or- 
leans, who shall be elected every four years by the qualified 
electors of said parish, and whose duties shall be regulated by 



CONSTITUnON OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 43 

Iviw. He shall be ex-officlo city pliysician of the city of New 
Orleans and receive an annual salary of five thousand dollars, and 
no more. He shall be a practicing physician of said city, and a 
graduate of the medical department of some university of res 
pectable standing. He may appoint an assistant having the 
same qualifications as himself, at an annual salary not exceed- 
ing three thousand dollars. The salaries of both coroner and 
assistant to be paid by the parish of Orleans. 

The maintenance and support of prisoners confined in the 
parish of Orleans, upon charges or conviction for criminal 
offenses, shall be under the control of the city ot Kew Orleans. 

GENERAL PROVISIONS. 

Art. 148. No person shall hold any office, State, parochial 
or muuicipal, or shall be permitted to vote at any election or act 
as a juror, who, in due course of law, shall have been convicted 
of treason, perjury, forgery, bribery or other crime punishable 
by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or who shall be under in- 
terdiction. 

Art. 149. Members of the Oeneral Assembly and all offi- 
cers, before they enter upon the duties of their offices, shall take 
the following oath or affirmation : 

^^I (A. B.) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support 
the constitution and laws of the United States, and the consti- 
tution and laws of this State; and that I will faithfully and im- 
partially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon 
me as according to the best of my ability and under- 
standing. So help me God." 

Art. 150. The seat of government shall be and remain at 
the city of Baton Rouge. 

The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption 
of this constitution, shall make the necessary appropriation for 
the repair of the State House and for the transfer of the archives 
of the State to Baton Rouge ; and the city council of Baton 
Rouge is hereby authorized to issue certificates of indebtedness, 
in such manner and form as to cover the subscription of thirty- 
five thousand dollars, tendered by the citizens and the city 
council in said^ city to aid in repairing the Gapitol in said city ; 



44 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

provided, the city of Baton Eouge shall pay into the State treas- 
ury said amount of thirty -five thousand dollars before the con- 
tract for the repairs of the State House be finally closed. 

Art. 151. Treason against the State shall consist only in 
levying war against it, or adhering to its enemies, giving them 
aid and comfort, ^o person shall be convicted of treason except 
on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on 
his confession in open court. 

Art. 152. All civil officers shall be removable by an ad- 
dress of two thirds of the members elected to each house of the 
General Assembly, except those whose removal is otherwise 
provided for by tliis constitution. 

Art. 153. No member of congress nor person holding or 
exercising any office of trust or profit under the United States, 
or either ot them, or under any foreign power, shall be eligible 
as a member of the General Assembly, or hold or exercise any 
office of trust or profit under the State. 

Art. 154. The laws, public records nnd the judicial and 
legislative written proceedings of the State shall be promulgated, 
preserved and conducted in the English language; but the Gen- 
eral Assembly may provide for the publication of the laws in the 
French language, and prescribe that judicial advertisements in 
certain de ignated cities and parishes shall also be made in that 
language. 

Art. 155. No ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the 
obligations of contracts, shall be passed; nor vested rights be 
divested, unless for purposes of public utility and for adequate 
compensation previously made. 

Art. 156. Private property shall not be taken nor dam- 
aged, for public purposes without just and adequate comijensation 
being first paid. 

Art. 157. No power of suspending the laws of this State 
shall be exercised, unless by the General Assembly or its au- 
thority. 

Art. 158. The General Assembly shall provide by law for 
change of venue in civil and criminal cases. 

Art. 159. No person shall hold or exercise^ at the same 



CONSTITUTION OF TBE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 45 

time, more than one office of trust or profit, except that of jus- 
tice of the peace or notary public. 

Art. 160. The General Assembly may determine the mode 
of filling vacancies in all offices for which provisions is not made 
in this constitution. 

Art. IGl. All officers shall continue to discharge the duiies 
of their offices until their successors shall have been inducted 
into office, excei^t in case of impeachment or suspension. 

Art. 162. The military shall be in subordination to the 
civil power, and no soldier shall, iu time of peace, be quartered 
in any house without the consent of the owner. 

Art. 163. The General Assembly small make it obligatory 
upon each parish to support all infirm, sick and disabled pau- 
pers residing within its limits 5 provided, that in every municipal 
corporation in a parish where the poweis of the police jury do 
not extend, the said corporation shall support its own infirm, 
sick and disabled paupers. 

Art. 164. jS^o soldier, sailor or marine in military or naval 
service of the United States shall hereafter acquire a domicile 
in this State by reason of being stationed or doing duty in the 
same. 

Art. 165. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to 
pass such laws as may be proper and necessary to decide differ- 
ences by arbitration. 

Art. 166. The power of the courts to punish for contempt 
shall be limited by law. 

Art. 167. The General Assembly shall have authority to 
grant lottery charters or privileges 5 provided, each charter or 
privilege shall pay not less than forty thousand dollars per an- 
num in money into the treasury of the State; and provided Jur- 
ther, that all charters shall cease and expire on the first of Jan- 
uary, 1895, from which time all lotteries are prohibited in the 
State. 

The forty thousand dollars per annum now provided by law 
to be paid by the Louisiana State Lottery Company, according 
to the provisions of its charter, granted in tbe year 1868, shall 
belong to the Charity Hospital of New Orleans, and the charter 
of said company is recognized as a contract binding on the State 



46 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

for the period therein specified, except its monopoly clause, 
which is hereby abrogated, and all laws contrary to the pro- 
visions of this article are hereby declared null and void^ pro- 
vided, said company shall file a written renunciation of all its 
monopoly features, in the office of the Secretary of State, within 
sixty days after the ratification of this constitution. 

Of the additional sums raised by license on lotteries, the 
hospital at Shreveport shall receive ten thousand dollars an- 
nually, and the remaining sum shall be divided each year among 
the several parishes in the State for the benefit of their schools. 

Art. 168. In all proceedings of indictments for libel, the 
truth thereof may be given in evidence. The jury in all crimi 
nal cases shall be judges of the law and of the tacts on the ques- 
tion of guilt or innocence, having been charged as to the law 
applicable to the case by the presiding judge. 

Art. 169. No officer whose salary is fixed by the Constitu- 
tion shall be allowed any fees or perquisites of office, excejit 
where otherwise provided for by this Constitution. 

Art. 170. The regulation of the sale of alcoholic or spirit- 
uous liquor is declared a police regulation, and the General As- 
sembly may enact laws regulating their sale and use. 

Art. 171. No person who, at any time, may have been a 
collector of taxes, whether State, parish or municipal, or who 
may have been otherwise intrusted with public money, or any 
portion thereot, shall be eligiblrt to the General Assembly, or to 
any office of honor, profit or trust under the State government, 
or any parish or municipality thereof, until he shall have ob- 
tained a discharge for the amount of such collections, and for all 
public moneys with which he may have been intrusted. 

Art. 3 72. Gambling is declared to be a vice, and the Gen- 
eral Assembly shall enact laws for its suppression. 

Art. 173. Any person who shall directly or iiidiiectly offer 
or give any sum or sums of money, bribe, present, reward, prom 
ise, or any other thing, to any officer. State, parochial or munic- 
ipal, or to anv member or officer of the General Assembly, with 
the intent to induce or influence such officer or member of the 
General Assembly to appoint any persoa to office, to vote or ex- 
ercise any power in him vested, or to perform any duty of him 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 47 

required, with par inlity or favor, the person giving-, or offering 
to give, and the officer or member of the General Assembly so 
receiving any money, bribe, present, reward, promise, contract, 
obligation or security, with the intent or for the purpose or con- 
sideration aforesaid, shall be guilty of bribery, and on being 
found guilty thereof by any court of competent jurisdiction, or 
by either House of the General Assembly of which he may be a 
member or officer, shall be forever disqualified from holding any 
office, State, parochial or municipal, and shall be ferever ineligi- 
ble to a seat in the General Assembly 5 provided^ that this shall 
not be so construed as to prevent the General Assembly from 
enacting additional penalties. 

Art. 174. Any person may be compelled to testify in any 
lawful proceeding against any one who may be charged with 
having committed the offense of bribery, and shall not be per- 
mitted to withhold his testimony upon the ground that it may 
criminate him or subject him to public infamy : but such testi- 
mony shall not afterwards be used against him in any judicial 
proceedings, except for perjury in giving such testimony. 

Art. 175. The General Assembly shall, at its first session, 
pass laws to i)rotect laborers on buildings, streets, roads, rail- 
roads, canals and other similar works, against the failure of con- 
traetors and sub-contractors to pay their current wages when 
due, and to make the corporation, company or individual for 
whose benefit the work is done responsible for their ultimate 
payment. 

Art. 176. l^o mortgage or i)rivilege on immovable property 
shall affect third persons, unless recorded or registered in the 
parish where the property is situated, in the manner and within 
the time as is now or may be prescribed bj^ law, except privi- 
leges for expenses of last illness, and privileges for taxes. State, 
IDarish or municipal j provided, such privileges shall lapse in 
three years. 

Art. 177. Privileges on movable property shall exist with- 
out registration for the same, except in such cases as the General 
Assembly may prescribe by law, after the adoption of this con- 
stitution. 



48 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

Art. 178. The General Assembly shall provide for the inter- 
est of State medicine in all its departments, for the protection 
of the people from unqualified practitioners of medicine; lor 
protecting confidential communications to medical men by 
their patients while under professional treatment, and for the 
purpose of such treatment; and for the establishment and mainte- 
nance of a State Board of Health. 

Art. 179. The General Assembly shall create a Bureau of 
Agriculture, define its objects, designate its officers and fix their 
salaries, at such time as the financial condition of the State may 
warrant them, in their judgment, in making such expenditures: 
provided, that such expenditures never exceed ten thousand dol- 
lars per annum. 

THE NEW CANAL AND SHELL EOAD. 

Art. 180. The New Basin Canal and Shell Road, and their 
appurtenances shall not be leased or alienated. 

MILITIA. 

Art. 181. The General Assembly shall have authority to 
provide by law how the militia of this State shall be organized, 
officered, trained, armed and equipped, and of whom it shall 
consist. 

Art. 182. The officers and men of the railitin and volunteer 
forces shall receive no pay, rations or emoluments when not in 
active service by authority of the State. 

Art. 18.S. The General Assembly may exempt from mili- 
tary service those who belong to religious societies, whose tenets 
forbid them to bear arms ; provided, a money equivalent for 
these services shall be exacted. The Governor shall have power 
to call the militia into active service for the preservation of law 
and order, or when the public service may roquire it ; provided, 
that the police force of any city, town or parish shall not be or- 
ganized or used as a part of the State militia. 

SUFFRAGE AND ELECTI0N:S. 
Art. 181. In all elections by the people the electors shall 



CONSTlTUTIuN OF THE STATE OF LOUI-IANA 49 

vote by ballot ; and in all elections by persons in a representa- 
tive capacity, the vote shall he viva voce. 

. Art. 185. Every male citizen of the United States, and 
every male person of foreign birth who has been naturalized, or 
who may have legally declared his intention to become a citizen 
of the United States before he ofters to vote, who is twenty-one 
years old or upwards, possessing the following qualifications, 
shall be an elector, and shall be entitled to vote at any election 
by the people, except g^s hereinafter provided : 

1. He shall be an actual resident of the State at least one 
year next preceding the election at which he offers to vote. 

2. He shall be an actual resident of the parish in which he 
ofters to vote at least six months next preceding the election. 

3. He shall be an actual resident of the ward or precinct in 
which he offers to vote at least thirty days next preceding the 
election. 

Art. 186, The General Assembly shall provide by law for 
the proper enforcement of the provisions of the foregoing article^ 
provided, that in the parish of Orleans there shall be a supervisor 
of registration, who shall be appointed by the Governor, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate, whose term of ofQce 
shall be for the period of four years, and whose salary, qualifica- 
tions aid duties shall be prescribed by law. And the General 
Assembly may provide tor the registration of voters in the other 
parishes. 

Art. 187. The following persons shall not be permitted to 
register, vote or hold any office or appointment of houor, profit or 
trust in this State, to- wit : 

Those who shall have been convicted of treason, embezzle- 
ment of public funds, malfeasance in office, larceny, bribery, ille- 
gal voting or other crime punishable by hard labor or imprison- 
ment in the penitentiary, idiots and insane persons. 

Art. 188. No qualification of any kind for suffrage or office, 
nor any restraint upon the same, on account of race, color or 
previous condition shall be made by law. 

Art. 189. Electors shall in all cases except for treason, 
felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during 



50 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

tlieir attendance on elections, and in going to and returning 

from the same. 

Art. 190. The General Assembly shall by law forbid the 

giving or selling of intoxicating drinks, ou the day of electien^ 

within one mile of precincts, at any election held within this 

State. 

Art. 191. Until otherwise iirovided by law, the general 

State election shall be held once every four years on the Tuesday 

next following the third Monday in April. 

Presidential electors and member of Congress shall be chosen 

or elected in the manner at the time prescribed by law. 

Art. 192. Parochial and the municipal elections in the 
cities of New Orleans and Shreveport shall be held on the same 
day as the general State election and not oftener than once in 
four years. 

Art. 193. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be 
deemed to have gained a residence, by reason of his presence, or 
lost it by reason of his absence, while employed in the service, 
either civil or military, of this State or of the United States ; nor 
while engaged in the navigation of the waters of the State or 
the United States, or of the high seas, nor while a student of 
any institution of learning. 

Art. 194. The General Assembly shall provide by law for 
the trial and determination of contested elections of all public 
officers, whether State, judicial, parochial or municipal. 

Art. 195. No person shall be eligible to any office. State, 
judicial, parochial, municipal or ward; who is not a citizen of 
this State and a duly qualified elector of the State, judicial dis- 
trict, parish, municipality or ward, wherein the functions of said 
office are to be exercised. And, whenever any officer. State, 
judicial, parochial, municipal or ward, may change his residence 
from this State, or from the district, parish, municipality or 
ward in which he holds such office, the same shall thereby be 
vacated, any declarations of retention of domicile to the contrary 
noth withstanding. 

IMPEACHMENT AND EEMOYALS FEOM OFFICE. 

Art. 196. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 51 

of State, Auditor, Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintendent 
of Public Education and the judges of all the courts of record in 
this State shall be liable to impeachment for high crimes and 
misdemeanor, for nonfeasance or malfeasance in office, for in- 
competency, for corruption, favoritism, extortion or oppression 
in office, or for gross misconduct or habitual drunkenness. 

Art. 197. The House of ^iepresentatives shall have the 
sole power of impeachment. All impeachments shall be tried by 
the Senate ; when sitting for that purpose, the Senators shall 
be upon oath or affirmation, and no person shall be convicted 
without the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators present. 
When the Governor of the State is on trial, the Chief Justice or 
the Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside. 

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall extend only to re- 
moval from office and disqualification from holding any office of 
honor, trust or profit under the State, but the party, whether 
convict<:'d or acquitted, shall nevertheless be liable to prosecu- 
tion, trial and punishment according to law. 

Art 198. All officers against whom articles of impeach- 
ment may be preferred sh dl be suspended from the exercise of 
the functions of their office during the pendency of such impeach- 
ment and, except in case of the impeachment of the Governor, 
the appointing power shall make a provisional appointment to 
replace any suspended officer until the decision of the impeach- 
ment. 

Art. 199. For any reasonable cause, the Governor shall re- 
move any officer on the address of two thirds of the members 
elected to euch house of the General Assembly. In every such 
case, the cause or causes for which such removal may be re- 
quired shall be stated at length in the address and inserted in 
the journal of each house. 

Art. 200. For any of the causes specified in article 196, 
judges of the courts of appeal, of the district courts throughout 
the State, and of the city courts of the parish of Orleans may be 
removed from office by judgment of the Supreme Court of this 
State in a suit instituted by the Attorney General or a district 
attorney in the name of the State, on his relation. The Supreme 
Court is hereby vested with original jurisdiction to try such 



52 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

causes ; and it is hereby made the duty of the Attorney General 
or of any district attorney to iustitute such suit on the written 
request and information of fifty citize^ns and taxpayers residing 
within the territorial limits of the district or circuit over which 
the judge against whom the suit is brought exercises the func- 
tions of his office. Such suits shall be tried, after citation and 
ten days' delay for answering, in preference to all other suits, 
and wherever the court may be sitting; but the pendency of 
such suit shall not operate a suspension from office. In all 
cases where the officer sued; as above directed, shall be acquit- 
ted, judgment shall be rendered jointly and in solido against the 
citizens signing the request, for all costs of the suit. 

Art. 201. For any of the causes enumerated in article 196, 
district attorneys, clerks of courts, sheriffs, coroners, recorders, 
justices of the peace and all other parish, municipal and ward 
officers shall be removed by judgment of the district court of 
the domicile of such officer (in ihc parish of Orleans the Civil 
District Court;) and it shall be the duty of the district attorney^ 
except when the suit is to be brought against himself, to insti- 
tute suit in the manner directed in article 200, on the written 
request and information ot twenty-five resident citizens and tax- 
payers in the case of district, parish or municipal officers, and of 
ten resident citizens and tsxpayers in the case of ward officers. 
Such suit shall be brought against a district attorney by the dis- 
trict attorney of an adjoining district, or by counsel appointed 
by the judge for that puriiose. In all such cases the defendant, 
the State and the citizens and taxpayers on whose information 
and at whose request such suit was brought, or any one of them, 
shall have the right to appeal, both on the law and the facts, 
from the judgment of the court. In all cases Avhere the officer 
sued, as above directed, shall be acquitted, judgment shall be 
rendered jointly and in solido against the citizens signing the 
request, for all costs of the suit. 

In cases against district attorneys, clerks, sheriffs and re- 
corders the appeal shall be to the Supreme Court, and in cases 
against all other officers the appeal shall be to the court of ap- 
peals of the proper circuit. 

Such appeals shall be returnable within ten days to the ap- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUIS ANA. 53 

pellate court, wherever it may be sitting or wherever it may hold 
its next session, and may be transferred by order of the judges 
of said court to another parish within their circuity and such ap- 
peals shall be tried by preference over all others. In case of 
the refusal or neglect of the district attorney or Attorney Gene- 
ral to institute and prosecute any suit provided for in this and 
the preceding article, the citizens and taxpayers making the re- 
quest, or any one of them, shall have the right by mandamus to 
compel him to perform such duty. 

keye:n^ue akd taxation 

Art. 202. The taxing power may be exercised by the Gen- 
eral Assembly for State purposes, and by parishes and munici- 
pal corporations, under authority granted to them by the General 
Assembly, for parish and municipal i)urposes. 

Art. 203. Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout 
the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and all 
property shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascer- 
tained as directed by lawj provided, the assessment of all prop- 
erty shall never exceed the actual cash value thereof; and pra- 
vided further, that the taxpayers shall have the right of testing 
the correctness of their assessments before the courts of justice. 
In order to arrive at this equality and uniformity the General 
Assembly shall, at its first session after the adoption of this con- 
stitution, provide a system of equality and uniformity in assess- 
ments, based upon the relative value of property in the different 
portions of the State. The valuation put upon property for the- 
purposes of State taxation shall be taken as the proper valua- 
tion for purposes of local taxation in every sub-division of the 
State. 

Art. 204. The taxing power shall be exercised only to 
carry on and maintain the government of the State and the pub- 
lic institutions thereof, to educate the children of the State, to 
pay the principal and interest of the public debt, to suppress 
insurrection, repeal invasion or defend the State in time of war, 
to supply the citizens of the State who lost a limb or limbs in 
the military service of the Confederate States with substantial 



54 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

artificial limbs during life^ and for levee purposes, as herein- 
after provided. 

Art. 205. The power to tax corporations and corporate 
property shall never be surrendered nor suspended by act of the 
General Assembly. 

Art. 20G. The General Assembly may levy a license tax, 
and in such case shall graduate the amount of such tax to be 
collected from the persons pursuing the several trades, profes- 
sions, vocations and callings. All persons, association of per- 
sons and corporations pursuing any trade, profession, business 
or calling may be rendered liable to such tax, except clerks? 
laborers, clergymen, school teachers, those engaged in mechan 
ical, agricultural, horticultural and mining pursuits, and manu- 
facturers other than those of distilled alcoholic or malt liquors, 
tobacco and cigars, and cotton seed oil. Ko political corpora- 
tion shall impose a greater license tax than is imposed by the 
General Assembly lor State purposes. 

Art. 207. The following property shall be exempt irom 
taxation, and no other, viz : All public property, places of relig- 
ious worship or burial, all charitable institutions, all buildings 
and property used exclusively for colleges or other school pur- 
poses, the real and personal estate of any public library and that 
of any other literarj' association, used by or connected with such 
library; all books and philosophical apparatus, and all paintings 
and statuary of any company or association kept in a public 
hall ; provided, the property so exempted be not used or leased 
for purposes of private or corporate profit or income. There 
shall also be exempt from taxation household property to the value 
of five hundred dollars; there shall also be exempt from taxa- 
tion and license for a period of twenty years from the adoption of 
the constitution of 1879, the capital, machinery and other property 
employed in the manufacture of textile fabrics, leather, shoes, 
harness, saddlery, hats, flour, machinery, agricultural imple- 
ments, manufacturer of ice, fertilizers and chemicals, 
and furniture and other articles of wood, marbleor stone, 
soap, stationery, ink and paper, boat-building and chocolate; 
provided, that not less than five hands are employed in any one 
factory. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 55 

Art. 208. The General Assembly shall levy an annual poll 
tax, for the maintenance of public schools, upon every male in- 
habitant in the State over the age of twenty-one years, which 
shall never be less than one dollar nor exceed one dollar and a 
half per capita, and the General Assembly shall pass laws to 
enforce payment of said tax. 

Art. 209. The State tax on property for all purposes what- 
ever, including expenses of government, schools, levees and in- 
terest, shall not exceed in any one year six mills on the dollar of 
its assessed valuation, if the ordinance regarding the bonded 
debt of the State is adopted and ratifi'^d by the people ; and if 
said ordinance is not adopted and ratified by the people, said 
State tax for all puri^oses aforesaid shall not exceed, in any one 
year, five mills on the dollar of the assessed valuation of the 
property ; and no parish or municipal tax for all purposes what- 
soever sliall exceed ten mills on the dollar of valuation ; ]^rovi- 
ded, that for the purpose of erecting and constructing public 
buildings, bridges and works of public improvement in parishes 
and municipalities, the rates ot taxation herein limited may be 
increased when the rate of such increase and the purpose for 
which it is intended shall have been submitted to a vote of the 
property taxpayers of such parish or municipality entitled to a 
vote under the election laws of the State, and a majority of 
same voting at such election shall have voted therefor. 

Art. 210. There shall be no forfeiture of i3roperty for the 
non-payment of taxes. State, levee district, parochial or munici- 
pal, but at the expiration of the year in which they are due the 
collector shall, without suit, and after giving notice to the de- 
linquent in the manner to be provided by law (which shall not 
be by publication except in case of unknown owner) advertise 
for sale the property on which the taxes are due in the manner 
provided for judicial sales, and on the day of sale he shall sell 
such portion of the property as the debtor shall point out, and 
in case the debtor shall not point out sufficient property, the 
collector shall at once and without further delay sell the least 
quantity of property which any bidder will buy for the amount 
of the taxes, interest and costs. The sale shall be without ap- 
praisement, and the property sold shall be redeemable at any 



56 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

time lor the space of one year, by paying the price given, with 
twenty per cent and costs added. ISTo sale of property for taxes 
shall be annulled for any informality in the proceedings until 
the price paid, with ten per cent interest be tendered to the pur- 
chaser. All deeds of sale made, or that may be made, by col- 
lectors of taxes, shall be received by courts in evidence sls prima 
facie valid sales. 

Art. 211. The tax shall be designated by the year in which 
it is collectable, and the tax on movable property shall be col- 
lected in the year in which the assessment is made. 

2\nT. 212. The Legislature shall pass no law postponing 
the payment of taxes, except in case of overflow, general con- 
flagration, general destruction of the crops, or other public 
calamity. 

AaT. 213. A levee system shall be maintained in the State' 
and a tax not to exceed one mill may be levied annually on all 
property subject to taxation, and shall be applied exclusively tcr 
the maintenance and repairs of le\ ees. 

Art. 211. The General Assembly may divide the State 
into levee districts and provide for the appointment or election 
of levee comm ssioners in said districts, who shall in the method 
and manner to be provided by law, have supervision of the erec- 
tion, repair and maintenance of the levees in said districts ; to 
that effect the Levee Commissioners may levy a tax not to ex- 
ceed ten mills on the taxable property situated within alluvial 
portions of said district subject to overflow; provided, that in 
case of necessity to raise additional funds for the purpose of 
constructing, preserving or repairing any levees protecting the 
lands of a district, the rate of taxation herein limited, may be 
increased when the rate of such increase and the necessity and 
purpose for which it is intended shall have been submitted to a 
vote of the jiroperty taxpayers of such district, paying taxes 
for himself, or in any representative cai)acity, Avhether resident 
or non-resident, on property situated within the alluvial portion 
of said district subject to overflow, and a majority of those in 
number and value, voting at such election, shall have voted 
here for. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 57 

Art. 215. 'the provisions of the ahove two articles shall 
cease to have effect whenever the Federal government shall as- 
sume ] ermanent control and ijrovide ways and means for the 
maintenance of levees in this State. The Federal government 
is authorized to make such geological, topographical, hydro- 
graphical and hydrometrical surveys and investigations within 
the State as may be necessary to carry into effect the act of 
Congress, to provide for the appointment of a Mississippi Eiver 
Commission for the improvement of said river, from the head of 
the Passes near its mouth to the headwaters, and to construct 
and i^rotect such public works and improvements as may be 
ordered by Congress, under under the provisions oi said act 

Akt. 216. The General Assembly shall have power, with 
the concurrence of an adjacent State or States, to create levee 
districts composed of territory partly in this State and partly in 
such adjacent State or States, and the levee commissioners for 
such district or districts shall possess all the powers provided 
by article 214 of this constitution. 

Art. 217. Corporations, companies or associations organ- 
ized or domiciled out of this State, but doing business herein, 
may be licensed by a mode different from that provided for home 
corporations or companies j provided,, said different mode of 
license shall be uniform, upon a graduated system, as to all such 
corporations, companies or associations that transact the same 
kind of business. 

Art. 218. All the articles and provisions of this constitu- 
tion regulating and relating to the collection of State taxes and 
tax sales shall also apply to and regulate the collection of par- 
ish, district and municipal taxes. 

HOMESTEADS AND OTHER EXEMPTIONS. 

Art. 219. There shall be exempt from seizure and sale by 
any process whatever, except as herein provided, the ''home- 
steads" bona fide owned by the debtor and occupied by him con- 
sisting of lands, buildings and appurtenances, whether rural or 
urbane j of every head of a family, or person having a mother or 
father, a person or persons dependent on him or her for support; 
also one work horse, one wagon or cart, one yoke of oxen, two 



58 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

COWS and calves, twenty-five bead of liogs, or one thousand 
pounds of bacon or its equivalent in pork, whether these ex- 
empted objects be attached to a homestead or not, and on a farm 
the ne'iessary quantity of corn and fodder for the current year, 
and the necessary farming implements to the value of two thou- 
sand dollars^ provided., that in case the homestead exceeds two 
thousand dollars in value, the beneficiary shall be entitled to that 
amount in case a sale of the homestead under any legal process 
realizes more than that sum. 

ISTo husband shall have the benefit of a homestead whose 
wife owns and is m the actual enjoyment of property or means 
to the amount of two thousand dollars. 

{Such exemptions to be valid, shall be set apart and regis- 
tered as shall be provided by law. The benefit of this provision 
may be claimed by the surviving spouse, or minor child or chil- 
dren of a deceased beneficiary, if in indigent circumstances. 

Art. 220. Laws shall be passed as early as practicable? 
for the setting apart, valuation and registration of property 
claimed as a homestead. Eights to homesteads, or exemptions 
under laws or contracts, or for debts existing at the time of the 
adopfon of this Constitution, shall not be impaired, repealed or 
affected by any provision of this Consticution, or any laws 
passed in pursuance thereof. l!^o court or ministerial of&cer of 
this State shall ever have jurisdiction or authority to enforce any 
judgment, execution or decree against the property set apart for 
a homestead, including such improvements as may be made 
thereon from time to time -, provided, the property herein declared 
to be exempt shall not exceed in value two thousand dollars^ 
This exemption shall not apply to the fo lowing cases, to-wit : 

1. For the purchase price of said i)roperty, or any part 
thereof. 

2. For labor and material furnished for building, repairing 
or improving homesteads. 

3. For liabilities incurred by any public officer or fiduciaiy, 
or any attorney at law, lor money collected or received on 
deposit. 

4. For lawful claims for taxes or assessments. 

Art. 221. The owner of a homestead shall at any time have 



CONSTITUnON OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 59 

the right to supplement his exemption by adding to an amount 
already set apart, which is less than the whole amount of ex- 
emption herein allowed, sufficient to make his homestead and ex- 
emption equal to the whole amount allowed by this Constitution. 
Art. 222. The homestead shall not be susceptible of mort- 
gage, except for the purchase price, labor and material furnished 
for the building, repairing or improving homestead, nor shall 
any renunciation or waiver of homestead rights or exemptions 
be valid. The right to sell any property which shall be recorded 
as a homestead shall be preserved, but no sale shall destroy or 
impair any rights of creditors therein. 

Art. 223. Equitable laws shall be passed for the protection 
of creditors against the fraudulent claims of debtors^ for the 
punishment of fraud, and for reaching property and funds of the 
debtor concealed from the creditor. 

PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

Art. 224. There shall be free public schools established by 
the General Assembly throughout the State for the education of 
all the children of the State between the ages of six and eighteen 
years ; and the General Assembly shall provide for their estab- 
lishment, maintenance and support by taxation or otherwise. 
And all moneys so raised, except the poll tax, shall be distrib- 
uted to each parish in proportion to the number of children be- 
tween the ages of six and eighteen years. 

Art. 225. There shall be elected, by the qualified electors 
of the State, a Superintendent of Public Education, who shall 
hold his office for the term of four years, and until his successor 
is qualified. His duties shall be prescribed by law, and he shall 
receive an annual salary of two thousand dollars. The aggre- 
gate annual expenses of his office, including his salary, shall not 
exceed the sum of three thousand dollars. The General Assem- 
bly shall provide for the appointment of parish boards of pub- 
lic education for the different parishes. 

The parish boards may appoint a parish superintendent ot 
public schools in their respective parishes, who shall be ex-officio 
secretary of the parish board, and whose salary for his double 



60 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

functions shall not exceed two hundred dollars annually, (except 
that in the parish of Orleans the salary of the parish superin- 
tendent shall be fixed by the General Assembly,) to be paid out 
of the public fund accruing to each parish respectively. 

Art. 226. The general exercises in the public schools shall 
be conducted in the English language and the elementary 
branches taught therein ; provided^ that these elementary 
branches may be also taught in the French language in those 
parishes in the State or localities in said parishes wheie the 
French langua<ie predominates, if no additional expenses is in- 
curred thereby. 

Art. 227. The funds derived from the collection of the poll 
tax shall be applied exclusively to the maintenance of the public 
schools as organized under this Constitution, and shall be ap- 
plied exclusively to the support ot the public schools in the 
parish in which the same shall be collected, and shall be ac- 
counted for and paid by the collecting officers directly to the 
competent school authorities of each parish. 

Art. 228. No funds raised for the support of the public 
schools of the State shall be appropriated to or used for the sup- 
port of any sectarian schools. 

Art. 229. The school funds of this State shall consist of: 

1. The proceeds ot taxation for school purposes, as provi- 
ded in this Constitution. 

2. The interest on the proceeds of all public lands hereto- 
fore granted by the United States for the use and support of 
the public schools. 

3. Of lands and other property which may hereafter be be- 
queathed, granted or donated to the State, or generally, for 
school purposes. 

4. All funds or property, other than unimproved lands, 
bequeathed or granted to the State, not designated for other 
purposes. 

5. The proceeds of vacant estates falling under the law to 
the State of Louisiana. 

The Legislature may appropriate to the same fund the pro- 
ceeds, in whole or in part, of public lands not designated for any 
other purpose, and shall provide that every parish may levy a 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 61 

tax for the public schools thereiD, which shall not exceed the 
State tax J provided, tha,t with such tax the whole amount ot 
parish taxes shall not exceed the limits of parish taxation fixed 
by this Constitution. 

STATE UNIVERSITY. 

Art. 230. The University of Louisiana, as at present es- 
tab ished and located at I^ew Orleans, is hereby recognized in 
its three departments, to wit : the law, the medical and the 
academical departments, to be governed and controlled by 
appropriate faculties. 

The General Assembly shall, from time to time, make such 
provision for the proper government, maintenance and support 
of said State University of Louisiana, and all the departments 
thereof, as the public necessities and well being of the people of 
the State of Louisiana may require, not to exceed ten thousand 
dollars annually. 

Til e Louisiana State University and iH gricultural and Me- 
chanical College, now established and located in the city of 
Baton IJouge, is hereby recognized, and all revenues derived 
cind to be derived from the sales of land, or land scrip, donated 
by the United States to the State of Louisiana for the use of a 
seminary of learning, and mechanical and agricultural college, 
shall be appropriated exclusively to the maintenance and sup- 
port of said University and Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 
lege, and the General Assembly shall from time to time make 
such additional axDpropriations for the maintenance and support 
of said Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Me- 
chanical College as the public necessities and the well being of 
the people of the State of Louisiana may require, not to exceed 
ten thousand dollars annua]l3\ 

Art. 231. The General Assembly shall also establish in the 
city of New Orleans a university for the education of persons of 
colorj provide for its proper government, and shall make an 
annual appropriation of not less than five thousand dollars nor 
more than ten thousand dollars for its maintenance and support. 

Art. 232. Women over twenty-one years of age shall 



62 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

be eligible to any office of control or management under the 
school laws of this State. 

FEEE SCHOOL FUND, SEMIKARY FUKD, AND AGRI- 
CULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE FUND. 

Art. 233. The debt due by the State to the Free School 
Fund is hereby declared to be the sum of one million, one hun- 
dred and thirty thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven dollars 
and fifty-one cents in principal, and shall be placed on the books 
of the Auditor and Treasurer to the credit of the several town- 
ships entitled to the same; the said principal being the proceeds 
of the sales of lands heretofore granted by the United States for 
the use and support of free public schools, which amoant shall 
be held by the State as a loan, and shall be and remain a per- 
petual fund, on which the State shall i)ay an annual interest of 
four per cent from the first day of January, 1880 ; and that said 
interest shall be paid to the several townships in the State en- 
titled to the same, in accordance with the act of Congress, No. 
68, approved February 15, 1813, and the bonds of the State 
heretofore issued belonging to said fund, and sold under act of 
the General Assembly, No. 81, of 1872, are hereby declared null 
and void, and the General Assembly shall make no provision for 
their payment, and may cause them to be destroyed. 

The debt due by the State to the Seminary Fund is hereby 
declared to be one hundred and thirty-six thousand dollars, 
being the proceeds of the sale of lands heretofore granted by 
the United States to this State for the use of a Seminary of 
learning, and said amount shall be placed to the credit of said 
fund on the books of the Auditor and Treasurer of the State as 
a perpetual loan, and the State shall pay an annual interest of 
four per cent on said amount from January 1, 1880, for the use 
of said seminary of learning j and the consolidated bonds of the 
State now held for use of said fund shall be null and void after 
the first day of January, 1880, and the General Assembly shall 
never make any provision for their payment, and they shall be 
destroyed in such manner as the General Assembly may direct. 

The debt due by the State to the Agricultural and Mechani- 
cal College Fund is hereby declared to be the sum of one hun- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 63 

dred and eighty -two thousund three hundred and thirteen dol* 
lars and three cents, bein^- the proceeds of the sales of lands 
and laud scrip heretofore grauted by the United States to this 
fctate for the use of a college for the benefit of agriculture and 
the mechanic arts ; said amounts shall be placed to the credit of 
said fund on the books of the Auditor and Treasurer of the Siate 
as a perpetual loan, and the State shall pay an annual interest of 
five per cent on said amount from January 1, 1880, for the use 
of said Agricultural and Mechanical College. The consolidated 
bonds of the State now held by the State for the use ot said 
fund shall be null and void after the first day of January, 188.0, 
and the General Assembly shall never make any provision for 
their payment, and they shall be destroyed in such manner as 
the General Assembly may direct. 

Thi- interest provided for by this article shall be paid out o^ 
any tax that may be levied and collected for the general purpo- 
ses ot public education. 

OORPORATIOX AND COEPORATE EIGHTS. 

Art. 234. The General Assembly shall not remit the for- 
^ feiture of the charter of any corporation now existing, nor re- 
new, alter or amend the same, nor pass any general or special 
law for the benefit of such corporation, except upon the condi- 
tion that such corporation shall thereafter hold its charter sub- 
ject to the provisions of this Constitution. 

Art. 235. The exercise of the police j)ower of the State 
shall never be abridged nor so construed as to permit corpora- 
tions to conduct their business in such manner as to infringe 
the equal rights of iudividuals or the general well-beiug of the 
State. 

Art. 236. No foreign corporation shall do any business in 
this State without having one or more known places of business 
and an authorized agent or agents in the State upon whom pro- 
cess may be served. 

Art. 237. Fo corporation shall engage in any business 
other than that expressly authorized in its charter or incidental 
thereto, nor shall it take or hold any real estate for a longer 



64 CUNSTl I UTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

' period than ten years, except such as may be necessary and 
proper for its legitimate business or purposes. 

Art. 238. No corporation shall issue stock nor bonds, ex- 
cept for labor done or money or x)roperty actually received, and 
all fictitious issues of stock shall be void, aud any corporation 
issuing such fictitious stock shall forfi it its chartei*. 

Art. 239. The stock shall not be increased, except in pur- 
suance of general laws, nor without consent of persons holding 
the larger amount in value of the stock, first obtained at a meet- 
ing of stockholders to be held after thirty days' notice given in 
pursuance of law. 

Art. 240. The term corporation, as used in this Constitu- 
tion, shall be construed to include all joint stock companies or 
. associations having any power or privileges not possessed by 
individuals or i)artnerships. 

Art. 241. It shall be a crime, the nature and punishment 
of which shall be prescribed by law, for any president, director, 
manager, cashier or other officer or owner of any private or 
public bank or banking institution to assent to the reception of 
deposits, or the creation of debts by such banking institution, 
after he shall have had knowledge of the fact that it is insol- 
vent or in failing circumstances ; any such officer, agent or man^ 
ager shall be individually responsible for such deposits so re- 
ceived and all such debts so created with his assent. 

Art. 242. The General Assembly shall have po.ver to enact 
general laws authorizing the parochial or municipal authorities 
of the State, under certain circumstances^ by a vote of the ma- 
jority of the property taxpayers in numbers and in value, to 
levy special taxes in aid of public improvements or railway en- 
terprises; provided, that such tax shall not exceed the rate of 
five mills per annum nor extend for a longer period than tea 
years. 

Art. 243. Any railroad corporation or association organ- 
ized for the purpose shall have the right to construct and operate 
a railroad between any points within this State, and connect at 
the State line with railroads of other States. Every railroad 
company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect 
with or cross any other railroad, and shall receive and transport 



CONS ! I r UTION OF TSE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 65 

each the other's passeugers, tonnage and cars, loaded or empty, 
without delay or discrimination. 

Art. 244. Eailways heretofore constructed, or that may 
hereafter be constructed in this State, are hereby declared pub- 
lic highways, and railroad compauies common carriers. 

Art. 245. Every railroad or other corporation, organized 
or doing business in this State under the laws or authority 
thereof, shall have and maintaiu a public office or place in this 
State for the transaction of its business, where transfers of stock 
shall be made, and where shall be kept for public inspection 
books in which shall be recorded the amount of capital stock 
subscribed, the names of owners of stock, the amounts owned 
by them respectively, the amount of stock paid, and by whom, 
the transfers of said stock, with the date of transfer, the 
amount of its assets and liabilities, and the names and places of 
residence of its officers. 

Art. 246. It any railroad company, organized under the 
laws ot this State, shall consolidate, by sale or otherwise, with 
any railroad company organized under the laws of any other 
State or of the United States, the same shall not thereby become 
a foreign corporation, but the courts of this State shall retain 
jurisdiction in all matters which may arise, as if said consolida- 
tion had not taken place. In no case shall any consolida- 
tion take place except upon public notice of at least sixty days 
to all stockholders, in such manner as may be provided by law. 
Art. 247. General laws shall be enacted providing for the 
creation of private corporations, and shall therein provide lully 
for the adequate protection of the public and the individual 
stockholder. 

Art. 248. The \ olice juries of the several parishes and the 
constituted authorities of all incorporated municipalities of the 
State shall ak>ne have the power of regulating the slaughtering 
of cattle and other live stock within their respective limits ; pro- 
vidf'd, no monopoly or exclusive privilege shall exist in this 
State, nor such business be restricted, to the land or houses of 
any individual or corporation ; provided, the ordioances desig- 
nating the places for slaughtering shall obtain the concurrent 
approval of the board of health or other sanitary organization. 



Qj CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

PAROCHIAL AFFAIRS AND B0U:N^DARIES. 

Art. 249. The General Assembly may establish and organ- 
ize new parishes, which shall be bodies corporate, with such 
powers as may be prescribed by law ; but no new parish shall 
contain less than six hundred and twenty-five square miles, nor 
less than seven thousand inhabitants ; nor shall any parish be 
reduced below that area or number of inhabitants. 

Art. 250. All laws changing parish lines or removing par- 
ish seats shall, before taking effect, be submitted to the electors 
of the i^arish or the parishes to be eflected thereby, at a special 
election held for that purpose, and be adopted by a majority of 
votes ot each parish cast at such election. 

Art. 251. Any parish may be dissolved and merged by the 
General Assembly into a contiguous parish or parishes, two- 
thirds of the qualified electors of the parish proposed to be dis- 
solved voting in favor thereof, at an election held for that pur- 
pose ; provided^ that each of the parishes into which the dis- 
solved parish proposes to become incorporated consents thereto 
by a majority of its qualified electors voting therefor. 

Art. 252. Whenever a parish shall be enlarged or created 
from territory contiguous thereto, it shall be entitled to a just 
proportion of the property and assets, and liable for a just pro- 
portion of the existing debts or liabilities of the parish or par- 
ishes from which such territory shall be taken. 

THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. 

Art. 253. The citizens of the city of New Orleans or any 
political corporation which may be created within its limits 
shall have the right of appointing the several public officers 
necessary for the administration of the police of said city, pur- 
suant to the mode of election which shall be provided by the 
General Assembly. 

Art. 254. The General Assembly, at its next session after 
the adoption of this Constitution, shall enact such legislation as 
may be proper to liquidate the indebtedness of the city of New 
Orleans, and apply its assets to the satisfaction thereot. It shall 
have authority to cancel the charter of said city; and remit its 
inhabitants to another form of government if necessary. In 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUrSlA.NA.^ -0^7 

any such new form of government no salary shall exceed three 
thousand live hundred dollars. 

Art, 255. The General Assembly shall pass necessary laws 
to prevent sailors or others of the crew of foreign vessels from 
workiuif on the wharfs and levees of the city of New Orleans ; 
provided, there is no treaty between the United States and for- 
eign powers to the contrary. 

AMENDMENT AND REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

Art. 256. Propositions for the amendment of this Consti- 
tution may be made by the General Assembly at any session 
thereof, and if two thirds of all the members elected to each 
house shall concur therein, after such proposed amendments 
have been read in such respective houses on three separate days, 
such proposed amendment or amendments, together with the 
yeas and nays thereon, shall be entered on the journal, and the 
Secretary of State shall cause the same to be published in two 
newspai)ers i)ublished in the parish of Orleans and in one paper 
in each other parish of the State in which a newspaper is pub- 
lished, for three months preceding the next election for Repre- 
sentatives, at which time the said amendment or amendments 
shall be submitted to the electors for their approval or rejection; 
and if a majority voting on said amendment or amendments 
shall approve and ratify the same, then, such amendment or 
amendments so approved and ratiiied shall become a part of the 
Constitution. 

When more than one amendment shall be submitted at the 
same time they shall be so submitted as to enable the electors to 
vote on each amendment separately. The result of said elec- 
tion shall be made known by the proclamation of the Governor. 

SCHEDULE. 

Art. 257. The Constitution of this State, adopted in 1868, 
and all amendments thereto, is declared to be superseded by 
this Constitution, and in order to carry the same into effect, it is 
hereby declared and ordained as follows : 

Art. 258. All rights, actions, prosecutions, claims and con- 
tracts, as well of individuals as of bodies corporate, and all 



68 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

aws in force at the time of tlie adoption of this Constitution, 
aiid not inconsistent therewith, shall continue as if the said Con- 
stituion had not been adopted. But the monopoly features in 
the charter of any corporation now existing in the State, save 
such as may be contained in the charters of railroad companies, 
are he eby abolished. 

Art. 259. In order that no inconvenience may result to the 
public service from the taking effect of this Constitution, no 
office shall be superceded thereby, but the laws ot the State rel- 
ative ot the duties of the several officers — executive, judicial 
and military — shall remain in full force, though the same be 
contrary to this Constitution, and the several duties shall be 
performed by the respective officers of tne State, according to 
the existing laws, until the organization of the government un- 
der this Constitution and the entering into office of the new offi- 
cers to be appointed or elected under said government, and no 
longer. 

Art. 260. Appointments to office by the Executive under 
this Constitution shall be made by the Governor to be elected 
under its authority. 

Art. 261. All causes in which appeals have been or may 
be hereafter taken, or now pending in the Supreme Court under 
the Constitution of 1868, and of which jurisdiction has been 
vested by this Constitution in the courts of appeal, shall, after 
the adoption of this Constitution, be transferred for tiial to the 
court of appeal of the circuit from which the appeal has been or 
may be taken. 

All other causes that may be pending in the Supreme Court, 
under the Constitution of 1868, shall be transferred to the 
Supreme Court created by this Constitution, as soon as it shall 
be organized. 

All causes that may be pending in all other courts, under 
the Constitution of 1868, upon the adoption of this Constitu- 
tion and the reorganization of the courts created by this Consti- 
tution, shall be transferred to the courts respectively having 
jurisdiction thereof under this Constitution. 

Art. 262. Immediately after the adjournment of this Con- 
vention, the Governor shall issue his proclamation, directing the 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 69 

several officers of the State authorized by law to hold elections for 
members of the General Issemby, to open and hold a poll in 
every parish in the State, at the places designated by law, upon 
the first Tuesday in the month of December next, 1879, for the 
purpose of taking the sense of the good people of this State in 
re2:ard to the adoption or rejection of this Constitution ; and it 
shall be the duty of said officers to receive the votes of all per- 
sons entitled to vote under the Constitution of 1868. 

Each voter shall express his opinion by depositing in the 
ballot box a ticket, whereon shall be written or printed, ^'For 
the Constitution," or ''Against the Constitution," or some such 
words as will distinctively convey the intention of the voter. 

It shall also be the duty of the Governor in his said procla- 
mation, to direct the said officers authorized by law to hold elec- 
tions, to open and hold a poll at the above stated time and 
places, for the election of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, mem- 
bers of the General Assembly, Secretary of State, Attorney 
General, State Auditor, and Superintendent of Public Educa- 
tion, and of all other officers whose election by the people is pro- 
vided for in this Constitution 5 and the names of the persons 
voted for shall be written or x^rinted on the same ticket, and de- 
posited in the same box as the votes ''for" or "against" the Con- 
stitution. 

And the said election for the adoption or rejection of the 

Constitution, and for the said officers, shall be conducted and 

the returns thereof made in conformity with existing laws upon 
the subject of State elections. 

Upon the receipt of the said returns, or on the last Monday 
in December, 1879, if the returns be not sooner received, it shall 
be the duty ot the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Sec- 
retary cf State, and the Attorney General, in the prcs^cnce of all 
such persons as may choose to attend, to compile the votes given 
at the said polls for ratification and rejection of this Constitu- 
tion; and it shall appear from said returns that a majority of 
the votes given on the question of adoption and rejection of the 
Constitution is for ratifying this Constitution, then it shall be 
the duty of the Governor to make immediate i^roclamation of 



70 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

that fact, aud henceforth this Constitution shall be ordained and 
established as the Constitution of the State of Louisiana, and 
the General Assembly elected in 1878 shall thereupon be dis- 
solved. Whether this Constitution be adopted or rejected, it 
shall be the duty of the Govei'noi- 1o cause to bo published in 
the official paper of the Convention the result of the polls, 
showing the number of votes cast in each parish for or against 
the said Constitution. 

If the Constitution be ratified, it shall be the duty of the 
Secretary of State to examine and compile the returns, aud pub- 
lish the result of the election of officers herein ordained, and in 
the manner provided by existing laws. 

Art. 263. The General Assembly first elected under, this 
Constitution shall convene in the city of New Orleans upon the 
second Monday in January next, 1880, after the election, and 
the Governor and Lieutenant Governor elected shall be duly in- 
stalled in office during the first week of the session, and before 
it shall be competent for the said General Assembly to proceed 
with the transaction ot business beyond their own organization. 

Art. 264. The State Auditor, Attorney General, Secretary 
of State, and Superintendent of Public Education, elected at 
the first election herein provided for, shall enter upon the dis- 
charge of the duties of their respective offices on the second 
Monday of January, 1880, after complying with the requisites of 
existing laws 5 and all other officers whose election or appoint" 
ment is provided for by this Constitution shall enter upon the dis- 
charge of the duties of their respective offices on the first Monday 
of April, eighteen hundred and eighty, after complying with the 
requirements of existing laws 5 until which period, all officers 
under the Constitution of eighteen hundred and sixty-eight shall 
receive the pay and emoluments provided for under such Con- 
stitution j provided, that the pay of the officers elected or ap- 
pointed under t^ is Constitution shall not commence until after 
their induction into office- The State Treasurer elected in No- 
vember, 1878, shall continue in office as if elected at the election 
to be held on the first Tuesday iu December, 1870 5 but the sal- 
ary of said officer shall be as established by this Constitution, 
from and after the second Monday in January, 1880. 



CONSTlTUTIOiV OV THE STATE OF LOUIS ANA. 71 

Art. 2()r>. 'i'he time of service of all ofl&cers chosen by the 
]i)cople at the first election uDder this Constitution shall termi- 
nate as though the election had been holden on the first Tues- 
day after the first Monday in April, 1880. 

Art. 26G. The judges of the courts of appeal, district 
judges, cityjudges, discrict attorney, coroner, clerks of courts, 
sheriffs, recorder of mortgages and register of conveyances, all 
ot whose election and appointment are provuled tor by this Con- 
stitution, in the parish of Orleans, shall only enter on the dis- 
charge of the duties of their respective offices on the first Mon- 
day of August, 1880, and the present incumbents shall continue 
until then in the performance of the duties of their respective 
offices and the enjoyment of the emoluments thereof, as now pre- 
scribed by law. 

Art. 207. The General Assembly is required to make pro- 
vision for paying J. H. Cosgrovt^, Printer of the Convent on, for 
the balance due him for work done previous to adjournment, 
and for all work that may be done by him after the adjournment of 
the Convention, by its direction, and shall make a special appro- 
priation to liquidate the debt which this Convention has con- 
tracted, authorizing the Fiscal Agent of the State to negotiate a 
loan of twenty-five thousand dollars ; and also for the payment 
of such vouchers as may be issued by the chairman of 
the Committee on Contingent Expenses, under the authority of 
this Convention in excess of the foregoing appropriation, for the 
purpose of enabling this Convention to complete its work ; pro- 
mdedy said vouchers ai^e a^jproved hj the President of the Con- 
vention. 

Art. 268. There shall not be any municipal election m the 
cities of New Orleans and Shreveport, in December, 1879. 'Ihe 
General Assembly shall provide for a municipal election in the 
city of New Orleans, or such municipal corporations as may be 
created within the territorial limits of the parisli of Orleans 
during the year 18b'0. The General Assembly may fix the time 
for a municipal election in the city of Shreveport, before April, 
1884. 

Art. 269. The terms of Act No. 43, of the regular session of 
1884, adopted at the session of the Legislature in the year 1884, 



72 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

are hereby ratified and approved ; and all provisions of the 
Constitution of 1879 repugnant thereto or in any way impairing 
the passage thereof, are hereby repealed, so far as the operations 
of said act are concerned. 

Art. 270. The General Assembly may divide the Stale into 
levee districts and provide for the appointment of election of 
Levee Commissioners in said districts, who shall in the method 
or manner to be provided by law, have supervision of the erec- 
tion, repair and maintenance of the levees in said districts ; to 
that eftect tlie Levee Commissioners may levy a tax not to ex- 
ceed ten mills on the taxable property, situated within the allu- 
vial portions of said district subject to overflow ) provided, that, 
in case of necessity, to raise additional funds for the purpose of 
constructing, preserving and repairing any levees protecting the 
lands of the district, the rate of taxation, herein limited, may 
be increased when the rate of such increase and the necessity 
and purpose for which it is intended shall have been submitted 
to a vote of the property taxpayers in such district, paying 
taxes for himself, or in any representative capacity, whether res- 
ident or non-resident, on property situated in the alluvial por- 
tion of said district subject to overflow, and a majority of those 
in number and value, voting at such election, shall have voted 
therefor. 

LOUIS A. WILTZ, 
President and Delegate from the Ninth Representative District 
of the Parish of Orleans. 
Wm. H. Harris, Secretary. 



MISCELLANEOUS ORDINANCES. 

RELIEF OF DELINQUENT TAXPAYERS. 

Art. 1. Be it ordained by the people of the State of Louisi- 
ana, in Convention assembled, All interests, penalties, costs 
and charges whatever, on taxes and licenses due the State, or 
any political corporation therein, prior to the first day of Janu- 
ary, 1879, and yet unpaid, are remitted; and all preperty 
forfeited to the State or any political corporation on account of 
n on-payment of taxes and licenses, or to which the State or any 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE - F LOUISIANA. 73 

political corporation now has a title, shall be redeemable, and 
the title to the State or any x)olitical corporation thereto an- 
nulled upon the payment by the debtor, or any interested party, 
of the principal of all taxes and licenses that may de due there- 
on at the date of redemption, and this right of redemption shall 
continue until the 1st day of January, 1881. In the event the prin- 
cipal of said taxes and licenses is not paid by said time, the 
interest, penalties, costs, fees and charges hereinbefore remitted 
shall revive and attach to the property upon which the taxes and 
licenses are due, and such property shall be then sold in the 
manner to be provided by law, and the t tie of the purchaser 
shall be full and comi:)lete ; ^roiu*^ef7, that nothing herein con- 
tained shall be construed as affecting the rights of third persons 
who may have purchased property, legally assessed and soLl at 
tax sales, or from the State or any political corporation, after the 
same was legally forfeited to or purchased by the State, or such 
corporation ; and provided further^ that nothing in this ordinance 
shall be taken as granting any time for the payment of the prin 
cipal of said taxes and licenses 5 and provided further, that in- 
terest shall accrue and be collected on the principal of said de- 
linquent taxes and licenses at the rate of eight per cent per an- 
num from January J, 1880 j and on all said taxes and licenses 
paid a discount of ten per cent per annum shall be allowed from 
the date of payment to January 1, 1881. 

That all taxes and licenses due the State prior to January 
1, 1879, may be paid as follows : 

1. That portion of said taxes and licenses due the Greneral 
Fund and all other funds, except as hereinafter provided, in 
any valid Auditor's warrants outstanding at the date of the 
adoption of this Constitution, except all warrants issued prior to 
the first of January, 1874, and also all warrants issued from the 
first of January, 1874, to the first of January, 1875, for other 
purposes than for salaries of constitutional officers, or for the 
support of charitable institutions for the year 1874. 

That, at the option of the holders of any of said warrants, 
the said warrants may be funded in bonds of the denomination 
of five dollars, with interest coupons attached thereto, at the 
rate of three per cent per annum interest from the first day of 



74 CONSTITUTION UK THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

July, 1880. The said bonds to be due and payable six years 
from the first day of January, 1880; the said coupons being pay- 
able at the State treasury on the first day of February and 
August of each year. 

All moneys received in the treasury for all taxes and licenses 
due the State prior to the first day ot January, 1879, except 
such as are otherwise provided for by this ordinance, shall be 
set aside to pay the interest on said five dollar bonds, and to 
provide a sinking fund to redeem the same. The bonds aboVe 
provided and interest coupons shall also be receivable f^r 
amounts due to the State for the redemption or purchase of 
property which has been forfeited or sold to the State for delin- 
quent taxes and licenses of any of the years named in this arti- 
cle. The bonds so issued shall be receivable for the said taxes 
and licenses and the obligations of the public charitable institu- 
tions of the State given for the purchase of necessary supplies 
of food, clothing, medicine and hire of employes. 

2. That portion of said taxes and licenses due the Interest 
Fund, subsequent to January, 1874, in any matured coui)ons 
issued by the State since that date. 

3. That portion of said tax due the levee fund since the 
year eighteen hundred and seventy- one to the year eighteen 
hundred and seventy-six, inclusive of both years, in any valid 
warrants issued to the levee comiDany and indorsed by the Aud- 
itor and Treasurer of the State as follows: '-Receivable for levee 
tax due from eighteen hundred and seventy-one to eighteen 
hundred and seventy-six, inclusive;" and the Auditor 
and Treasurer are hereby authorized to so indorse warrants 
issued by the Levee Company, as provided above, to an 
amount sufficient to cover the balance due on the judgment 
recovered by said company in the case entitled Louisiana Levee 
Company vs. the State of Louisiana, iSTo. 7163, in the Supreme 
C ;urt of Louisiana. 

Be it further ordained, etc.. That no Auditor's warrant shall 
be taken as valid for the purpose of payment of taxes and 
licenses or for funding as hereinbefore prescribed, until the same 
shall have been examined by the Auditor, Treasurer and Attor- 
ney General of the State, and indorsed by them as valid. Said 



CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 75 

warrants, when so indorsed, may be surrendered to said officers, 
and by tbem registered and cancelled, and in lieu thereof said 
Auditor and Treasurer shall issue certilicates in sums of five, 
ten, twenty or fifty dollars, as may be desired by the holder of 
said warrants, which shall be receivable for all taxes and 
liceuses due the State prior to January 1, 1879, except the taxes 
due the Interest Fund and Levee Fund. 

Be it further ordained^ That all taxes and licenses due any 
parish or municipal corporation prior to January 1, 1879, may 
be payable in any valid warrants, scrip or floating indebtedness 
of said parish or municipal corporation, except judgmenls. 

raDEBTEDNESS OF THE STATE TO ITS FISCAL 
AGENT. 

Be it ordained by the people of the State of Louisiana in Con- 
vention assembled^ The debt due from the State to its Fiscal 
Agent, being in amount one hundred and eighty-seven thousand 
seventy-seven dollars and twenty-four cents ($187,077 24), sub- 
ject to such reduction as may result from credits arising out of 
taxes due to the Interest Fund since June 30, 1879, which said 
debt was created under the contract made between the Board of 
Liquidators and the Fiscal Agent, under date of twenty-fifth 
May, 1.877, and under act No. 28, session of the Legislature of 
1878, is hereby declared to be a valid obligation of the State : 
and the Legislature shall, at its first session after the adoption 
of this Constitution, provide for the payment of the same 5 and 
the Fiscal Agent shall, as a condition ]3recedent to said pay- 
ment, surrender and deliver to the Auditor of the State for can- 
cellation, the interest coupons which were taken up and held by 
said Fiscal Agent at the time of making the advances which 
created the said indebtedness; but the interest to be allowed 
said Fiscal Agent shall be at the rate of four per cent per an- 
num until the debt is paid. 

ORDINANCE— LOAN B^ FISCAL AGENT. 

Art. 1. Be it ordained by the people of the State of Louisi- 
<ina in Convenftion assembled^ That the Fiscal Agent of this State 
shall be and is hereby empowered by authority of this Conven- 
tion to negotiate a loan of twenty-five thousand dollars or so 



76 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUJSIANA. 

much thereof as may be necessary, at seven per cent per annum 
to defray the residue of the expenses of this Convention not 
provided for by the act of the General Assembly calling this Con- 
vention, and to enable the Convention to complete the work of 
framing the new Constitution. 

Art. 2. That said loan shall be evidenced by certificates of 
indebtedness, signed by the President of this Convention, and 
countersigned by the Secretary thereof, under seal of this Con- 
vention, m sums of five hundred dollars or under, bearing seven 
per cent per annum interest from the date of such certificates 
until paid, and payable on the fifteenth day of March, A. D. 
1880, at the State National Bank of New Orleans, in the city of 
New Orleans. 

Art. 3. The first General Assembly convened under this 
Constitution shall make a special appropriation to liquidate the 
debt which this Convention has contracted or may contract, as 
per ordinance adopted authorizing the Fiscal Agent of the State 
to negotiate a loan of twenty-five thousand dollars for the pur- 
pose of enabling this Convention to complete the work of fram- 
ing this Constitution. 

STATE DEBT. 

Article 1. Be it ordained hy the people of the State of 
Louisiana, as provided hy law, That the State Debt Ordinance 
be amended so as to read as follows : That the interest to be 
paid on the Consolidated Bonds of the State of Louisiana, be 
and is hereby fixed at two per centum per annum for five years, 
from the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and 
eighty (1880), and four per centum per annum thereaiter, paya' 
ble semi-annually ; and there shall be levied an annual tax suf- 
ficient for the full payment of said interest, not exceeding three 
mills, the limit of State tax for all purposes being hereby fixed 
at six mills ; and said bonds and coupons shall be duly stamped : 
"Interest reduced to two per centum per annum for five years 
from January 1, one thousand eight hundred and eighty, and 
four per centum per annum thereafter." 



CONSTITUnON OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 77 

Art. 2. That tlie holders of the Consolidated Bonds may, 
at any time, in order that the coupons may be paid, present their 
bonds to the Treasurer of the State, or to agents to be ap- 
pointed by the Governor, one in the city of New York, and the 
other in the city of London, England, and the said Treasurer or 
agents, as the case may be, shall indorse or stamp thereon the 
words : "Interest redu'ied to two per centum per annum for five 
years from January 1, one thousand eight hundred and eighty 
(1880), and four per centum per annum thereafter j" and said 
Treasurer or agent shall indorse or stamp on said coupons the 
tollowmg words : ''Interest reduced to two per cent per annum ;'^ 
or "interest reduced to four per centum per annum," as the case 
may he. 

Art. 3. Be it further ordained^ That the coupons of said 
consolidated bonds falling due the first of January, 1880, be and 
the same is hereby remitted, and any interest taxes collected to 
meet said coupons are hereby transferred to defray the expenses 
of the State government. 

Be it further ordained^ and it is hereby ordained hy this Con- 
stitutional Convention, That the foregoing provisions and arti- 
cles relative to the consolidated debt shall not form a part of 
this Constitution, except as hereinafter provided, as follows : 

At the election held for the ratification or rejection of this 
Constitution, it shall be lawtul lor each voter to have written or 
printed on his ballot the words, "For ordinance relative to State 
debt," or the words, "Against ordinance relative to State debt," 
and in the event that a majority of the ballots so cast have in- 
dorsed on them the words, "For ordinance relative to State 
debt," then the said foregoing provisions and articles of thi s or 
dinance shall form a part of the Constitution submitted, if the 
same is ratified ; and if a majority of the votes so cast shall 
have indorsed on them the words, "Against ordinance relative 
to State debt," then said provisions and articles shall form no 
part of this Constitution. 

LOUIS A. WILTZ, 
President and Delegate from the Mnth Representative District 
of the Parish of Orleans. 
Wm. H. Harris, Secretary. 



78 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

CITV^ DEBT ORDINANCE. 

TroposiDg au amendment to the Constitution providing for tbe 
funding of the bonded debt of the city of New Orleans, other 
than Premium Bonded, into four per cent bonds ; providing a 
special tax of one per cent to pay the bonded debt of the city^ 
and exempting the sa d four per cent bonds Irom taxation, and 
further authorizing the said city to assume and pay such un- 
paid claims of the Board of School Directors of said city and 
parish which it may find to be equitably due by said board. 
Section 1. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of 
Eepresentatives of the State of Louisiana, two-thirds of all the 
members elected to each house concurring, That the following 
amendments to the Constitution of the State be submitted to 
the electors of the State at the next election for Eepresentatives 
for the General Assembly iu the year 1892, for the purpose of 
retiring the now existing valid outstanding bonds of the city of 
New Orleans, including the bond certificates or bonds issued 
under the act of the Legislature No. 58 of 1882 and to retire 
judgments now or hereafter rendered against the city on float- 
ing debt claims prior to 1879, entitled to be funded under act 
No. G7 of 1884, the said city of >^ew Orleans is hereby author- 
ized and directed, on and after the adoption of this amejidment^ 
to .issue through the Board of Liquidation of the City Debt, 
bonds to be known as the Constitutioual Bouds of the city of 
New Orleans, not exceeding ten mill ons of dollars, at fifty years^ 
bearing four per cent per annum interest to bear date and be in 
the form prescribed by the Legislature. The said bonds shall 
be applied by the said board to the retirement of said outstand- 
ing bonds and judgments, by the sale of said Constitutional 
Bonds, and application of the proceeds of sale by the Board of 
Liquidation, to pay or purchase said outstanding bonds and 
judgments, or by exchanging the said Constitutional Bonds for 
bonds, on the terms and in the mode prescribed by the Legisla- 
ture. For the payment of the interest and principal at matu- 
rity, of said Constitutional Bonds, and other outstanding bonds 
not retired under this amendment, and for the payment of the 
annual allotments and premiums of the Premium Bonds of said 
city, the said city is hereby authorized and directed to levy an 



CONSTITUTION OF TflE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 79 

Dually, and until the lull payment of said bonds, a special tax 
of one per cent on all the real and personal property of the city, 
said tax to be part of, and not in addition to the tax of twenty 
mills and two-tenths of a mill on the dollar of valuation now 
levied for all purposes by the city of New Orleans, and the said 
tax shall be paid over as collected to, and bo applied by the 
Board of Liquidation, to the payment of the interest and prin- 
cipal at maturity of said Constitutional Bonds, and outstanding 
bonds not retired, and to the payment of the allotments of Pre- 
mium Bonds and premiums extant, in the hands of holders. 

Said tax is hereby declared to be the contract right of the 
holders of all said bonds ; and the exemption of said Constitu- 
tional Bonds from all taxation by the city of New Orleans and 
State of Louisiana is hereby recognized and declared, and after 
payment of all the annual interest on said Constitutional Bonds 
and bonds not retired and the payment of the said annual allot- 
ments of Premium Bonds and premiums extant in the hands of 
holder's, and after making provisions for a sinking fund, at such 
time and of such an amount as the Legislature prescribes, the 
surplus of said one per cent shall be disposed of as prescribed 
by the Legislature. 

The act passed at the present session No, 36, entitled "An 
act to carry into effect the Constitutional amendment passed at 
the present session relative to the bond debt of the city of New 
Orleans," etc., be and is hereby approved and confirmed in all 
its parts as a contract between the city of New Orleans and the 
holders of said Constitutional Bonds, Premium Bonds and of 
thei)onds outstanding not retired as aforesaid. 

Section 2. Be it further resolved, etc., That the city oi 
New Orleans be and is hereby authorized and empowered to ex- 
amine into and assume the payment of the claims or obligations 
of the Board of School Directors for the city and parish of Or- 
leans due for the years 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883 and 1884, now in 
the hands of original owners, who have in no wise parted with 
their right of ownership or pledged the same, as may be found 
to be equitably due by said board for services rendered, labor 
performed or materials furnished by authority of said board. 



80 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 

Section 3. Be it further resolved, That all electors volir 
at said election for said amendment shall place upon their ba 
lots the words, For the city of 'New Orleans debt amendment 
and all electors voting at said election against said amendmei 
r.hall place on their ballots the words, ''Against the city of I^Te 
Orleans debt amendment." 



